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

Is Bangladesh cosying up to Beijing and Islamabad?

The Kunming gathering appears to mark the beginning of a dangerous geopolitical maneuver. Behind the diplomatic curtain, efforts to forge a strategic bloc seem to be underway—one that not only threatens regional

UAE rolls out red carpet for Indian start-ups

MoU signed with IIT Bombay’s SINE as CEPA Start-up Series aims to accelerate market access for Indian ventures In a bid to bolster cross-border entrepreneurship and innovation, the UAE-India CEPA Council (UICC),

Fuel switch mystery in Air India horror crash

Cockpit voice recordings, fuel switch anomalies and a possible overlooked advisory emerge in early findings The preliminary investigation into the crash of Air India flight AI171, which went down shortly after take-off

‘Kill and Dump’ Haunts Balochistan Again

The latest killings have reignited accusations of extrajudicial executions and the use of counterterrorism laws to cover up custodial deaths in Balochistan….reports Asian Lite News Concerns have deepened across Balochistan following the

‘ASEAN Expands, But Keeps Its Soul’

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan urged ASEAN to uphold its unity and strategic resolve amid intensifying geopolitical tensions and mounting external pressures…reports Asian Lite News Consensus and inclusivity will remain the cornerstones
Go toTop

Don't Miss

Fresh clashes break out on Afghanistan-Tajikistan border

While the local Taliban officials denied the incident, other senior

Pakistan being made a scapegoat: Qureshi

Pakistani Foreign Minister also said that Islamabad has pleaded its