Ayaz Gul
VOA News
December 12, 2018
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran have pledged to increase cooperation and information-sharing for effectively combating the trafficking of Afghan opiates.
War-shattered Afghanistan remains the world’s largest producer of opium, though the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime noted in its latest survey the opium cultivation decreased by 20 percent in 2018 due to a severe drought and reduced prices.
The illegal opiates are largely smuggled to international markets through Pakistan and Iran.
Need for more initiatives
Afghan, Pakistan and Iranian counternarcotics officials concluded their two-day UNODC-facilitated interaction Wednesday in Islamabad, where delegates underscored the need for more efforts against the massive flow of illicit drugs.
Participants at the “Triangular Initiative” meeting called for timely sharing of information and conducting simultaneously interdiction operations along their shared largely porous borders.
The forum was established in 2007 with a mission to promote regional cooperation to reduce the poppy cultivation, trafficking, and consumption of drugs in the region and beyond.
Officials acknowledged that despite Afghanistan’s political tensions with Pakistan and Iran anti-drugs cooperation largely continues.
Renewed attitude
Cesar Guedes, UNODC representative in Pakistan, noted the three countries attended the Islamabad meeting with “a revived attitude and role”, raising prospects for more effective counternarcotics efforts in 2019.
“More needs to be done because the level of [Afghan opium] production has also increased. They need really to coordinate closer in their joint efforts,” he told VOA
Guedes also called for increased international assistance, saying Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran alone cannot curb the menace of drugs.
“This has to be done in the framework of shared responsibility. All the countries, producers, consumers and transit need to join the effort,” he said.
Despite many challenges facing the government, the head of the Afghan delegation said authorities have taken significant steps to eradicate drug trafficking.
US assistance
Director General for Policy Planing at the Afghan Ministry of Narcotics, Mohammad Osman Frotan, said 89 percent of poppy cultivation this year has taken place in the Afghan provinces most hit by insurgent activities. He said counternarcotics authorities during 2018 have seized more than 433 tons of different types of drugs, and arrested and prosecuted almost 4,000 suspects.
The United States has spent more than $8 billion in the past 17 years to assist Afghanistan in eradication efforts. But the effort has failed to stop opium production, which increased to record highs and stood at an estimated 9,000 tons in 2017. Critics blamed insecurity, rampant corruption and patronage by influential Afghans for the unprecedented growth.
*MaNufacturers of weapons
of
mass destruction and the hired
drug kingpins play
their pivotal role
in
continuation
of
imposed
warfares
and
anarchies
across
Afghanistan.
……………….
The international war criminals won’t survive
without the generations of such huge
illegal funds to pay off the expenses
of
ongoing calamities at its
currently-extremely expensive l
full force.- it must be done precisely and elaborately.
===========
===========
MEANWHIKE; THE
INEPT PUPPETS ARE STRIVING EXTREMELY HARD
TO
PLEASE THEIR
LAZY
FOREIGN MASTERS !
.***
**
.*
All, on expenses of the local tolks; director- directly
and/or
indirectly.
===
==
=
JUST
PACK UP
AND
GET OUT
OF
AFGHANISTAN !
IRONICALLY; THE
LOCALLY-STATIONED
ANGLO/US
TRICKSTERS WOULD JUST SIT
THERE TO CLOSELY
WATCH AND MONITOR
THEIR
IMPOSED SAVAGERIES.
======
THEY WOULD BALANCE IT OUT
ONLY
IF NECESSARY- OTHERWISE; THEY WILL LET IT
BURN OFF ON ITS OWN.
THEY
REPLACED
DOG FIGHTS
TO
MOB FUGHTS.
*Meant to say:
===========
The succeeded
in
replacing
••••••••••••
*Dog fights
to
*Mob fights.
War on drugs
VS
War on terror
==============
HOW FUNNY ?????
UNDER THE SHADOW
OF
ANOTHER:
.
“GREAT GAME”
********************
*PRINT
MY ARTICLE !