TEHRAN (FNA)- Speaker of the British House of Lords Baroness Frances D'Souza in a meeting with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani asked Tehran to share the new technologies that it has achieved with London.

During the meeting which was held on the sidelines of the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, D'Souza also welcomed reopening of the British embassy in Tehran as a step towards easing tensions and starting a new chapter in the relations between the two countries.


She also said that Britain is eager to expand its parliamentary relations with Iran.


Larijani, for his part, referred to the presence of terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria, and said, "The terrorist and extremist stream is not limited to the region and can be dangerous to all."


He also pointed to the 40-fold increase in the production of drugs in Afghanistan in the past 10 years and after the US and Britain attacked the country, and said, "Illicit drugs are a source of income for the terrorists and there is no international resolve to fight this phenomenon."


Afghanistan produces some 90 percent of the world’s illicit opiates. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that in 2014 the drug production levels climbed 17 percent compared to the previous year.


The Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FDCS) chief said in May that illegal drug production in Afghanistan has increased by a factor of 50 and continues to rise since a US-led operation was launched in the country in 2001.


The amount of land being used in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan hit a record number of 224,000 hectares last year, Victor Ivanov said.


"The drug production in Afghanistan is the major problem for Eurasia and Central Asia, with its level increasing 50 times since the launch on October 7, 2001 of US invasion and continues to rise," Ivanov said.


According to Ivanov, leading world experts agree that the drug production in the country would continue to grow unless the international community takes active steps.


By Fars News Agency