Iran�s Anti-Narcotics Police Chief Brigadier General Ali Moayyedi said Italy has voiced its readiness to boost police cooperation with the Islamic Republic in various areas and provide Iran with surveillance equipment used in fighting against drugs.

�In their latest negotiations (with Iran), Italian officials voiced their readiness to help Iran in supplying equipment and facilities required to combat illicit drugs,� Brigadier General Moayyedi told Tasnim.

He further hailed Italy�s anti-drugs campaign, saying that it has a good approach to interaction with Iran in the fight against drug trafficking, unlike some other European countries.

In relevant remarks earlier this month, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli criticized some UN member states, which are duty-bound to contribute to the global fight against illicit drugs, for not taking any measure to support countries like Iran that are on the front line of the war against narcotics.

Rahmani Fazli, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on Drugs, also highlighted Iran�s all-out efforts to combat illicit drugs originating from neighbouring Afghanistan.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is standing against the huge influx of illicit drugs as �a strong barrier�, he said, adding that many countries are benefiting from the fruits of these efforts by Iran.

In recent decades, Iran has been hit by drug trafficking, mainly because of its 936-kilometer shared border with Afghanistan, which produces more than 90% of the world�s opium.

According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Islamic Republic is netting eight times more opium and three times more heroin than all other countries in the world combined.

The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 3,700 Iranian police officers over the past 30 years.

By Tasnim News Agency