Official: Political Enemies Waging Drug War on Iran

Image: http://english.farsnews.com

(TABRIZ, Iran FARS) - A senior Iranian official on Wednesday warned that enemies of the Islamic Republic have waged a new war on the Iranian society through encouraging drug consumption and addiction among the Iranian youth.

"In fact, a new war has started on the Islamic Republic of Iran in the field of narcotics, and enemy is seeking to undermine the society to make it fragile," Director-General of the Office of Public Participation and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) at the Presidential Office Mohammad Sadeq Fathollahi said in an NGO conference in Iran's Northwestern city of Tabriz.

"We are currently facing an arrogant plot in the field of illicit drugs and fighting this plot alone is impossible," Fathollahi added.

Reminding Iran's sacrifices in the war on narcotics, he added that a number of 3700 of Iran's security forces have lost their lives and another 12,000 have lost their body parts in the country's combat against narcotics since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.

Iranian officials take the US and Britain responsible for increased drug production and trafficking in the world's major drug producer, Afghanistan, cautioning that the Afghan drug problem has gravely deteriorated since the US invasion of the country.

The Iranian police officials maintain that drug production in Afghanistan has undergone a 40-fold increase since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

Late in May, UN Secretary General's Special Envoy to Afghanistan Staffan de Mistura acknowledged increased drug production in Afghanistan, and praised Iran's activities and efforts in fighting drug plantation, production and trafficking.

While Afghanistan produced only 185 tons of opium per year under the Taliban, according to the UN statistics, since the US-led invasion, drug production has surged to 3,400 tons annually. In 2007, the opium trade reached an estimated all-time production high of 8,200 tons.

Afghan and Western officials blame Washington and NATO for the change, saying that allies have "overlooked" the drug problem since invading the country 9 years ago.

Eastern Iran borders Afghanistan, which is the world's number one opium and drug producer. Iran's geographical position has made the country a favorite transit corridor for drug traffickers who intend to smuggle their cargoes from Afghanistan to drug dealers in Europe.

Iran spends billions of dollars and has lost thousands of its police troops in the war against traffickers. Owing to its rigid efforts, Iran makes 85 percent of the world's total opium seizures and has turned into the leading country in drug campaign.

The US-led West is notorious for its ceaseless efforts to overthrow the Islamic establishment in Iran and Washington itself has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on Iran regime change plans. But all the plots and efforts made by the US strategists, specially those in the oval Office and the Pentagon, have so far failed to produce a desirable result for the Zionist inspired White House.

Analysts believe that the US has changed strategy from military threats to soft war plans in the last decade to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Establishing satellite TV channels and promoting western lifestyle and Hollywood values through different means in Iran is just one of the numerous soft-war tactics used by the US in this new war on Iran.

Recent surveys show that drug lords have intensified their campaign against Iranian anti-drug squads while their counterparts in Tehran and other major Iranian cities are striving to replace the more conventional narcotics with the synthetic drug chemicals mostly seen in the West, like LSD, Crystal meth and Crack. And now analysts believe that promotion of drug consumption and addiction is one of those new tactics adopted by the US for toppling the Islamic Republic.

Originally published by: http://english.farsnews.com