CLINTON REMOVES IRAN FROM DRUG LIST

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) - Issuing his annual list of major drug producing
countries, President Clinton removed Iran for the first time since 1987
because illegal opium cultivation has been virtually eliminated.

In accepting Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recommendation,
Clinton said today he took the action because of Iran's reported success in
recent years in eradicating opium poppy cultivation.

``We were unable to test these claims until this year when a United States
government review found no evidence of any significant poppy cultivation in
the traditional growing areas,'' Clinton said in a letter sent to Capitol
Hill. ``While we cannot rule out some cultivation in remote parts of the
country, it is unlikely that there would be enough to meet the threshold
definition of a major drug producing country.''

The White House must draw up a list annually of major drug-producing or
drug-transiting nations. The president then must certify for Congress by
March 1 which of those countries are cooperating with U.S.
counter-narcotics efforts.

Only Iran, Nigeria, Burma and Afghanistan were not certified last year, a
finding that requires the United States to cut most forms of assistance and
vote against financing through multilateral lending institutions.

Clinton also removed Malaysia from the so-called majors list. Clinton said
though Malaysia is in a prime location to transit heroin to the United
States, officials found ``no indication that drugs significantly affecting
the United States have transited the country in the past few years.''

Clinton also kept on the majors list Aruba, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia,
Brazil, Cambodia, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti,
Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru,
Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Though Iran and Malaysia were removed from the list of worst-offending
nations, they still were designated ``of concern'' for the purpose of U.S.
counternarcotics efforts.

Also singled out for that category were Netherlands Antilles, Turkey and
other Balkan route countries, Syria, Lebanon, Cuba, major cannabis
producers such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, the Phillipines and
South Africa, and Central Asia.