Russia, Iran agree to join hands against drug trafficking

Russia, Iran agree to join hands against drug trafficking

10/ 08/ 2005

MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) – The government agencies for drug
control in Russia and Iran have agreed to cooperate in combating
illegal trade in narcotics and psychotropic substances. The heads of
the respective agencies, Viktor Cherkesov and Ali Khashemi, today
signed a cooperation memorandum outlining principal strategies for
sharing information on drug-related crimes and their perpetrators.

Russian drug control officials said that before signing the
memorandum, the sides had to work out common approaches to fighting
drug trafficking, specifically, the distribution of Afghan heroin.

Russian officials also said their initiative to create and strengthen
anti-drug “security belts” around Afghanistan had been fully supported
by Iranian counterparts. Last November, Iran contributed to a Eurasian
anti-drug trafficking operation, under the auspices of the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan).

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress