FAILED AFGHAN DRUG POLICY HARMING US, SAYS IRAN

Heroin Addiction On Rise, Tehran Official Warns

Britain Points To Decrease In Land Used For Cultivation

Young Iranians are paying the price for NATO's "failure" to curb opium
production in neighbouring Afghanistan, according to the Iranian government.

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Mehdi Safari, made the complaint at
the end of a three-day visit to Britain, after talks with the foreign
secretary, David Miliband, and other Foreign Office and Downing Street
officials, in an attempt to improve relations. One of the few areas of
cooperation between Iran and Britain is counter-narcotics, but Safari
expressed frustration at what the Iranian government sees as a lack of
progress.

"Unfortunately the situation in Afghanistan every day is getting worse
and worse. If you compare it to five or six years ago, it is more than
gloomy," Safari told the Guardian. He said the volume of opium-based
drugs being smuggled through Iran from Afghanistan - the source of
more than 90% of the world's opium - had increased fivefold over five
years, and the drugs themselves had become far more potent.

"I wish we could have just opium. But with 350 laboratories [Afghan
drug producers] are converting opium to heroin and crystal," he said.
Crystal is a particularly pure form of heroin also known in Iran as
"crack".

Safari added that 65% of the laboratories were in Helmand province,
the centre of Afghanistan's opium production, where British forces are
garrisoned.

Safari said he was listened to politely at the Foreign Office, but
left with little hope that the situation would improve. "They say our
duty is to fight against the terrorists, not to fight against the
drugs. But you cannot differentiate between the two acts. This is very
correlated. This is a good income for the insurgents and the terrorist
groups .. we have to work on the package: terrorists, insurgents and
narcotics."

British officials said yesterday that laboratories were being targeted
as part of a joint policy with the Afghan government to target drug
kingpins rather than poppy farmers. They also pointed to the latest
report on Afghanistan from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, published
last month, which said there had been a 19% decrease in land under
opium cultivation since last year (although higher yields meant that
actual production decreased by only 6%). The UNODC also reported that
the number of opium-free provinces in Afghanistan had increased from
13 to 18.

British diplomats acknowledge, however, that Iran has borne the brunt
of the Afghan drug trade, and has played a significant role in
attempting to close the smuggling routes across its borders with
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The flow of Afghan drugs through Iran has created a serious social
problem. Estimates of the number of addicts range from 1 million to 10
million. Four years ago most Iranian addicts used opium, but now a
majority use heroin or "crystal".

In London yesterday Safari said: "Iran has a very young generation and
you know what effect such drugs have on our population. So this is a
big headache for us."