UNLIKELY ALLIES

U.S., Iran Separately Fighting A Common Foe - The Afghan Drug Trade

WASHINGTON - The critical fight against the illicit drug trade in
Afghanistan is getting help from an unlikely source: Iran.

Though rarely discussed in this country, Iran's role in combating
Afghan trafficking has been by all accounts highly positive and has
come at great cost, reflected most dramatically in the deaths of
thousands of Iranian border police.

Iran also has helped build border security posts inside Afghanistan to
catch or deter narcotics smugglers, a program described to the
Post-Dispatch by the former Afghan interior minister who worked with
Iranians to develop it.

"Iran has played a very constructive role in combating the drug trade,
especially along the border it shares with Afghanistan," said Antonio
Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based United Nations office on
drugs and crime. Iran's Afghan aid, he said, includes "providing
economic support to help opium farmers switch to alternative crops."

Iran's effort is occurring against a backdrop of volatile
developments: the mounting opium poppy cultivation and heroin
production in Afghanistan fuels a fierce insurgency that is killing
U.S. forces and aims to overthrow the Afghan government.

Just a few days ago, the United States announced that 11,000 new
coalition troops would attack insurgents in the drug-ridden provinces
in the south. Three straight years of bumper crops have flooded Iran
and Western Europe with Afghan heroin, a trail now leading to the
United States as well, with Chicago the chief distribution center and
nearby cities such as St. Louis affected.

Missouri and Illinois officials say the highly pure heroin is
attracting younger, affluent users and causing a spike in overdoses.
U.S. talk about Iran in recent months has been sharply negative amid
concerns over the Middle East nation's pursuit of a nuclear program.

As founder of the Afghanistan-America foundation, former Republican
congressman Don Ritter has led efforts to build an Afghan market economy.

He returned Monday from his 16th trip to Afghanistan since
2001.

"In terms of collaboration between the Iranians and the Afghanis on
the drug problem," Ritter said, "you never hear anything about it, you
don't read about it." Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., chairman of a
key house panel dealing with Afghanistan, learned recently of iran's
activities.

"The fact that the Iranians are as anti-American as they are, and yet
they're playing a positive role in the opium trade, is somewhat
surprising," he said.

Iran's role

Iran shares a 600-mile border with Afghanistan. Officials at Iran's
permanent mission to the United Nations in Vienna say that in seizing
tons of Afghan heroin, they've lost 3,500 security troops over the
past decade. That is a reliable figure, according to a variety of
experts on the region.

Indeed, Iran has tackled the drug problem far more rigorously than
Afghanistan's other major neighbor, Pakistan - a top U.S. ally in the
war on terror - says Ashraf Haidari, first secretary for security and
development at the Afghan Embassy in Washington.

"As far as Pakistan, we don't have much cooperation," Haidari said.
"They have not been as effective as we would have hoped. Not only
traffickers but also terrorists regularly cross borders and attack.

"We are getting assistance more from Iran. One reason is they have a
more established, cleaner counter-narcotics police force. They are
watching for drug traffickers coming in from the Afghan side, and
interdict them and arrest them and put them in jails in Iran."

Former Afghan Interior Minister Ali Jalali saw firsthand another side
of Iran's anti-narcotics effort. Starting in 2003 with a trip to
Tehran, he worked for two years with his Iranian counterpart to build
25 security posts.

"I went with the interior minister of Iran and jointly we opened the
security posts along the border," Jalali said. "Iran is very serious
about fighting drugs. The policy of Iran regarding the stability in
Afghanistan is very positive."

Iran's interdiction efforts forced traffickers to establish a northern
route through Central Asia to move some Afghan heroin. Iran also joins
in regular talks with Afghan and British officials to discuss
cooperation in stemming the drug trade.

Iran's drug problem

Iran has strong self-interest - and a long way to go - in this
endeavor. Partly due to its proximity to Afghanistan's fertile poppy
fields, Iran suffers from a heroin problem Costa calls "the worst in
the world."

Iranian officials in Vienna acknowledge their country has at least 2
million addicts - which spawns serious social problems. World health
officials estimate that 67 percent of HIV cases in Iran stem from drug
use.

Iran also is a transit route for Afghan heroin headed to Turkey and
Western Europe, creating security risks. Half of all Afghan heroin is
consumed in or goes through Iran, experts say.

Another factor prodding Iran is its tense relationship with the former
Taliban regime, which Iranian leaders do not want reinstalled in power.

"I think what you have with Iran," Ritter said, "is that they're a
country with a very long border with Afghanistan and a very long
border with Iraq. The Iraqi situation is quite unstable as far as they
are concerned. They've got their hands full on the Iraq border, so
they have pretty much sought stability on the Afghan side."

And, he notes, Iran has built a trade surplus with Afghanistan, which
it doesn't want disrupted.

Lack of coordination

Ever since Iranians seized American hostages in 1979, the two
countries haven't had diplomatic relations, which now prevents them
from coordinating their efforts against Afghan drugs.

The mutual lack of recognition was reflected when St. Louis native Tom
Schweich, the State Department's point man on Afghan narcotics,
delivered the U.S. statement at a conference in Qatar earlier this
year. Before he did so, the large Iranian delegation staged a walkout.
Nor did Schweich attempt to talk to the Iranians.

"I have no contact with the Iranians," he said. "There are much higher
forces at work here."

Schweich understands that the showdown over Iran's nuclear ambitions
give him no room to maneuver.

"Until that's resolved, I'm going to steer clear of any dealings with
the Iranians," he said.

Britain, meanwhile, has provided millions of dollars for security
equipment and bullet-proof vests for Iranian border guards "to assist
with the interdiction of opiates."

"We are, as a whole," said Steve Atkins, British Embassy spokesman in
Washington, "happy with the cooperation we are seeing from them."

The silence

At a sparsely attended 8 a.m. House oversight hearing in March, a RAND
Corp. expert on Afghanistan briefly noted Iran's role in combating the
drug trade.

The panel's chairman, Rep. Rohrabacher, expressed surprise: "Well,
that is the first time that I have heard 'decent' and 'Iran' in the
same breath for about 10 years now."

Some suggest that the United States has been hesitant to say something
positive about Iran during U.S. efforts to mobilize support for
curbing Iran's nuclear program.

"The administration certainly hasn't spoken about it," said Rep.
William Delahunt, D-Mass., ranking member of the House oversight
panel. But Iran's activities are likely influencing the new U.S.
readiness to negotiate directly, Delahunt said: "Clearly something's
happening, because our policy has shifted."

Beyond boosting the anti-narcotics campaign, collaboration might also
improve overall American-Iranian relations, says Rick Barton, director
of post-conflict reconstruction at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies. He is examining progress in Afghanistan for the
U.S. Agency for International Development.

"If you work on areas where you have agreement, you may find you can
reach agreement on things you actually disagree on," said Barton, past
deputy United Nations high commissioner for refugees. "Where they're
doing bad stuff, let's be clear. Where they're doing stuff that's
positive, let's acknowledge that - and expand it."

But for now, Rohrabacher said, the nuclear dispute "overrides" all
else. "It's pretty hard to give credit to someone who is doing
something good on one hand," he said, "if they're trying to build a
nuclear bomb on the other hand."

Iran may be ready to play its anti-drug card in the negotiations.
According to the Iranian press, a government official recently warned
that if his country is overly pressed on the nuclear issue, it might
relax its anti-trafficking efforts and "the torrent of narcotic drugs
will sweep away the West."