May 08, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1429

TEHRAN, May 7: Iran accused Nato on Wednesday of being indifferent towards Afghanistan’s growing drugs problem and called on European states to help Tehran fight smuggling of heroin and other narcotics from its neighbour.

Iran is on a heroin smuggling route to the West from the opium fields of Afghanistan, the world’s number one producer of the opium poppy, which is processed to make heroin.

“The exploding growth in the cultivation of opium ... in Afghanistan last year has created many problems ... especially for Iran,” said Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, secretary of Iran’s drug control headquarters.

Iranian officials say the United States has failed to combat drugs in Afghanistan after US-led forces ousted the Taliban government in 2001.—Reuters