British cabinet office minister Mo Mowlam has pledged her country’s co-operation with Iran in its fight against drug trafficking and addiction, said reports.
Mowlam arrived in Tehran Sunday on a five-day official visit, becoming the most senior British official to visit the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
She praised the "magnificent job" Iran was already doing to stop drugs being smuggled into Europe and Britain, said the BBC.online.
"Although Iran and the UK have many cultural differences, one of the things our countries have in common is a serious drug problem," she said after a meeting with interior ministry officials.
Mowlam, who has special responsibility for combating narcotics in the UK, will sign an agreement to work with Iran to fight the drug trade.
She will also pledge more financial support to train and equip Iranian customs and police officers to stem the flow of opium across the country's 600-mile border with Afghanistan, said the news service.
Iran, tangled between the world's biggest drug producer Afghanistan and transit routes to Europe through Turkey and the former Soviet Union, seized 90 percent of all opium and 45 percent of all heroin and morphine confiscated worldwide last year, according to the Iranian News Agency (IRNA).
Over recent years, Britain has given four million dollars to the United Nations anti-drug efforts in Iran to help combat the problem of drug trafficking, said the agency.
The amount is the largest contribution made by Britain to any country on combating drugs – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
