US TO ENLIST IRAN IN COMBATING AFGHAN DRUG TRADE

MUNICH -- Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's new point man
on Afghanistan and Pakistan, is expected to engage Iran as part of a
broad effort to stabilize Afghanistan and combat the country's growing
drug trade, according to officials briefed on the special
representative's plans. Many in the Obama administration believe that
Iran and the U.S. share common interests when it comes to Afghanistan,
these officials said. Tehran has been among the largest suppliers of
financial and economic aid to Kabul since the overthrow of the Taliban
in 2001, and these officials said they believe Iran may be willing to
work with the U.S. to strengthen the fragile government of Afghan
President Hamid Karzai.

Mr. Holbrooke is expected to seek Iran's support for a renewed
international effort to combat Afghanistan's growing drug trade. Iran
has one of the highest opium-addiction rates in the world, and Iranian
authorities have long pushed U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty
Organization forces in Afghanistan to take stronger measures to combat
opium production and trafficking there. (Meanwhile, former Iranian
President Mohammad Khatami said he would contest Iran's presidential
elections this summer. Article on page A8.) "Holbrooke will deal with
Iran through [the issue of] Afghanistan," said an official who has
spoken in recent days with Mr. Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Holbrooke said the envoy wouldn't comment about
his plans until he returns from a 10-day visit to Afghanistan,
Pakistan and India that kicks off Monday in Islamabad.

President Barack Obama has entrusted the conduct of the U.S.-led war
in Afghanistan to two men: Gen. David Petraeus, who runs the
military's Central Command and oversees the military aspects of the
conflict; and Mr. Holbrooke, charged with managing the diplomatic,
economic and political facets of the war.

The pair made their first joint appearance Sunday at a security
conference in Munich, and called for reshaping the entire U.S.-led
mission in Afghanistan.

Gen. Petraeus said the U.S. would begin using tactics in Afghanistan
that were closely modeled on those developed in Iraq. He called for
expanding outreach to moderate members of the Taliban and said the
U.S. would build new outposts in residential areas of Afghanistan so
American troops could live and work among ordinary Afghans. The
American commander pressed European allies to contribute more troops.

Mr. Holbrooke, who is best known for negotiating the accords that
ended the war in Bosnia in the 1990s, was blunt. "I have never seen
anything remotely resembling the mess we've inherited," he said. "In
my view, it's going to be much tougher than Iraq."

Mr. Holbrooke called for making a single, U.N. special envoy
responsible for the nonmilitary aspects of the conflict. He said the
international community was "dribbling away" scant resources by
failing to better coordinate each country's reconstruction efforts in
Afghanistan.

Mr. Holbrooke didn't discuss Iran in his public comments in Munich,
but some U.S. officials said they believed outreach to Tehran through
Afghanistan could be part of a broader U.S. engagement strategy toward
Iran, a top priority of Mr. Obama's.

Mr. Holbrooke recently hired Vali Nasr, a preeminent scholar on Iran
and Shiite Islam, according to U.S. officials briefed on the decision.
Christopher Hill, who had worked closely with Mr. Holbrooke in forging
a peace agreement in the Balkans, meanwhile, is expected to be named
U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Mr. Hill's appointment would facilitate any
efforts by Mr. Holbrooke to coordinate talks with Iran from both sides
of Tehran's borders.