Pubdate: Sun, 24 May 2009
Source: Khaleej Times (UAE)
Copyright: 2009 Khaleej Times
Contact:  http://khaleejtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/996

IRAN HOSTS REGIONAL SUMMIT ON FIGHTING DRUGS, EXTREMISM

TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted a  summit with 
his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts on  Sunday aimed at finding 
ways to combat Islamic  extremism and drug smuggling in the region.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani  counterpart 
Asif Ali Zardari both headed high-level  delegations.

The summit came after Afghanistan's largest-ever drugs  seizure in an 
operation that ended on Saturday in a  Taliban stronghold and 
opium-production centre in the  south of the country, in which troops 
killed 60  militants.

"Today the three nations are suffering from drug and  human 
trafficking which has put pressure on the three  countries," 
Ahmadinejad told the gathering.

He said the region also faced other problems such as  "intervention 
and extremism" which have been "imposed  on us from far away."

"They have been imposed by people who have no close  historical or 
cultural proximity to us... and the  foreign troops in the region who 
came here under the  pretext of bringing security have also not 
succeeded,"  Ahmadinejad said referring to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

Karzai said the region is "suffering from extremism,  war and 
division among nations," but added that  security can return if "we 
cooperate fully and act like  good neighbours."

The Afghan foreign ministry said on Saturday that the  summit aimed 
to create a "mechanism" for regular  high-level consultation between 
the three neighbours.

It would underline a shared commitment to "eradicating  extremism, 
terrorism and drugs which run counter to  Islamic beliefs and morals, 
and the culture and  traditions of the three Islamic countries", a 
ministry  statement said.

The three governments also want to forge closer  cooperation in the 
fields of agriculture, commerce,  transport, health and energy, it added.

In his speech, Zardari proposed that the next three-way  summit be 
held in Pakistan. He also called for a  separate "trilateral meeting 
on development" but did  not suggest a venue.

Ahmadinejad, Karzai and Zardari met less than three  months ago in 
Tehran with leaders of other neighbouring  states for a regional 
economic summit that pledged to  help rebuild war-shattered Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is the source of 90 percent of the world's  opium, most 
of which is converted into heroin inside  the country and smuggled 
out through Pakistan and Iran,  where drug use is growing.

The Afghan military announced on Saturday that it had  used air 
strikes to destroy 92 tonnes of drugs,  heroin-processing chemicals 
and bomb-making materials  in the southern province of Helmand.

The Tehran summit comes as the administration of US  President Barack 
Obama has been working to engage Iran  in efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.

Iran attended a US-backed international conference on  Afghanistan in 
The Hague on March 31.

Engaging Iran is part of Obama's strategy to secure the  help of all 
Afghanistan's neighbours in reconstructing  the Muslim country which 
has been battling a resurgent  Taliban insurgency boosted by rising 
Islamic militancy  across the border in Pakistan.

Iran has not had diplomatic relations with the United  States for 
nearly three decades, and was included in  former president George W. 
Bush's so-called "axis of  evil" along with North Korea and Iraq.

Despite their rivalry, Washington and Tehran are both  sworn enemies 
of the Taliban, an extremist Sunni Muslim  militia initially backed 
by Pakistan, that ruled in  Kabul from 1996 to 2001.

Shiite Iran, which has close ethnic and religious ties  with 
Afghanistan, has long suffered from the effects of  opium production 
in its eastern neighbour, with easily  available heroin fuelling a 
big rise in drug use at  home.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom