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Iranian drug czar in Kabul for international campaign talks |
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Kabul, Jan 5, IRNA -- Head of Iran Anti-Narcotics Headquarters Ali Hashemi, heading a three-member delegation, arrived in Kabul Sunday for international talks to combat drug trafficking from Afghanistan. He is scheduled to hold talks with officials from Afghanistan, Britain, and Germany as the nations spearheading an anti-narcotics campaign in the war-torn country. The Representative of the UN Drug Control Program (UNDCP) is also scheduled to attend the meeting. The meeting comes on the heels of the visit to Tehran by the Afghan National Security Advisor for International Affairs Zalmay Rassool and in the framework of implementing the agreements signed with the Iranian officials under the UN supervision. Iran and Britain are cooperating in an anti-drug trafficking plan in Afghanistan as well as in a training program for the Afghan anti-drug police force. In their week-long visit to the Afghan capital, the Iranian delegation will have bilateral and unilateral meetings with officials from other countries interested in cooperating in the anti-drug trafficking campaign. Meanwhile, Rassool conferred in late December with Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi on issues of mutual interests. At the meeting, Rassool lauded Iran's aid and support for the Afghan people and government and called for expansion of wider cooperation in anti-drug campaign. The Afghan government is fully determined to uproot poppy cultivation, trafficking of narcotic drugs and the phenomenon of while looking forward to international assistance in fulfilling such a significant task, he said. Calling the measures conducted by some countries in the campaign against drug-trafficking as "insufficient", The Iranian foreign minister said as long as poppy seeds are cultivated in Afghanistan, "no one can hope for eradication of terrorism in the country." Highlighting Iran's role in reconstructing Afghanistan, Kharrazi said implementation of pilot projects in agricultural sector could be extended to other parts of the country in case they prove successful. |
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