June 27, 2022
3 mins read

Raisi blames US, NATO for narco rise in Afghanistan

Raisi said Iran’s fight against drug trafficking was “affected by US sanctions”, which deprived the country of many required tools and technologies….reports Asian Lite News

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has alleged that the measures taken by the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) during their occupation of Afghanistan have “led to increased cultivation of narcotic plants in the war-torn country”.

Making the remarks in an address to a ceremony to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Raisi said, “During the US-NATO two-decade presence, narcotics production in Afghanistan became industrialised and the output was distributed across the globe.”

Raisi stressed that no country can fight drug trafficking alone, urging all countries and international organizations to play their role, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Iranian presidency’s website.

He said Iran’s fight against drug trafficking was “affected by US sanctions”, which deprived the country of many required tools and technologies.

Narco-terror

The illegal-narcotics trade constitutes one of the main financial sources of the insurgency groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but, more importantly, it feeds narco-terror.

The American withdrawal in 2021 means that the countries of the region will have to play a greater role in the management of their borders and confront questions about their capacity to stop potentially destabilising trends emerging from Afghanistan, reported Afghan Diaspora Network.

Heroin networks and drug lords present a principal impediment to security, state-building, and democratic governance. Beyond the national boundaries, Afghan-originated heroin creates enormous challenges for international security by financing terrorism, instigating corruption, killing nearly 100,000 users worldwide every year, undermining public order, and debilitating economic development.

The devastating impacts of the Afghan heroin trade have spilled over into Southwest Asia, Central Asia, Russia, China, the Balkans, and Europe.

The Taliban have long used narcotics as their main source of revenue. Without the poppy crop, they may never have grown to be the massive organisation that they are today that was capable of toppling the Ghani government, reported the Afghan Diaspora Network.

According to the Narco-Insecurity, Inc.’s report ‘The Convergence of the Narcotics Underworld and Extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan and its Global Proliferation,’ this was made possible with the help of Pakistan’s ISI, who launched several covert operations with sympathetic jihadist groups all of whom relied heavily on narcotics trafficking to fund their operations, expanding the trafficking route even further through their regions, launching the Balkan, northern, and southern routes of the global narcotics trafficking pipeline.

The most substantial of these was the Haqqani network, a criminal enterprise situated along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border that was founded on smuggling. The ISI saw the Haqqani network as a key ally, given their location and alliances with numerous jihadist groups, and began investing in their bases while using them as a proxy for engagement with other non-state actors.

A vicious cycle has formed between insecurity and the opium economy. Insecure regions are fertile territory for poppy farming due to the lack of government oversight and a lack of alternative livelihoods. They both attract insurgent groups, who profit off of the opium industry at multiple levels of the supply chain and are created by insurgent groups.

Since the recent Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, there has been a knock-on effect on the global narcotics industry. Counter narcotics efforts will need to shift to operate under a new paradigm where direct counter-narcotics efforts in Afghanistan are unlikely to continue. (IANS/ANI)

ALSO READ: Kaziranga faces new threat from invasive plant species

Previous Story

‘Thackeray offered CM post to Shinde in May’

Next Story

Pakistan to narrow digital divide, promote skills

Latest from -Top News

GAZA KILLINGS: War Crime?

Mobile Phone Footage Casts Doubt on Israeli Account of Ambulance Attack in Gaza Newly surfaced mobile phone footage has raised serious questions about the Israeli military’s justification for opening fire on a

Namibia voices concern over US tariffs

AGOA is a non-reciprocal trade arrangement aimed at supporting development in African countries through preferential access to US markets The Namibian government has expressed concern over newly imposed US tariffs, warning that

Uganda, South Sudanese leaders hold talks

Museveni, who is among the guarantors of a 2018 peace agreement that ended a five-year civil war, held closed-door discussions with President Salva Kiir Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni was expected to meet

Protests across US against Trump

The largest event was at the National Mall in DC, where demonstrators numbered in the tens of thousands People across the US took to the streets on Saturday to oppose what left-leaning

Namibia voices concern over US tariffs

AGOA is a non-reciprocal trade arrangement aimed at supporting development in African countries through preferential access to US markets The Namibian government has expressed concern over newly imposed US tariffs, warning that
Go toTop

Don't Miss

Gordon Brown calls for Afghanistan donor conference

The UN on Tuesday launched a call for $4.5 billion

Britain presents evidence of oil tanker attack at UN

Iran rejected the accusation and blamed Israel for destabilising the