The threat was leveled by Mohammad-Javad Larijani, who heads Iran’s Supreme Council for Human Rights. Larijani is also the brother of Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Majlis, as well as Sadeq Larijani, the chairman of the Judiciary.
In a written statement posted on the web Saturday, Larijani said, “Westerners either have to be Iran’s partner in the fight against drug trafficking or we must think otherwise and, for instance, allow the transit [of drugs through Iran].”
He said he was responding to European complaints about the high level of executions in Iran. The number of executions by Iran is second only to China. And the rate of executions per million people is higher in Iran than in any other country, including China.
Larijani said, “The number of executions in Iran is high because 74 percent of those executed are traffickers in large quantities of opium from Afghanistan bound for European markets.” He did not mention that a large proportion of the drugs entering Iran stay in Iran, which has the largest drug addiction problem in the world, according to the UN, which says 2.8 percent of Iranians aged 15 through 64 are addicts—not periodic users, but addicts.
Larijani said, “Iran cannot win the war on drug trafficking alone. If Europe is interested in this war, it should participate.”
Iran has often complained that other countries do not lift a finger to help Iran. Actually, British governments have taken a lot of domestic criticism for providing Iranian police with safety vests and other gear to help them in the drug fight. US administrations have repeatedly suggested joint Iran-US efforts against drugs, but have simply been ignored by Iran.
But the suggestion by Larijani that the Islamic Republic would punish Europe for complaining about executions by pushing drugs into Europe hits a new low in official threats.
The EU complains about American executions, as well, although it probably doesn’t complain as much since there are far fewer executions in the United States. The Americans simply ignore the European complaints.
But Larijani wouldn’t do that. “There is an easy way for Iran and that is to close our eyes so drug traffickers can just pass through Iran to anywhere they wish to go,” he sneered. “The number of executions in Iran would drop 74 percent. That would be very good for our reputation.”
The Islamic Republic made a major effort to halt opium poppy cultivation inside Iran decades ago and succeeded within just a few years. The United States has often praised Iran for its success in halting drug cultivation.
Most of the world’s poppies are now grown in Afghanistan. The Islamic Republic blames that on the United States and Britain, charging them with promoting or at least looking the other way as poppy crops are harvested and shipped into Iran.
But the UN says almost all the drugs in Afghanistan are grown in areas the Taliban influence. The provinces where the Taliban are little seen and American and British troops hold sway are almost if not completely drug free.
The annual UN drug report issued in March said, “Almost all of the illicit opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is concentrated in the southern and western parts of the country. In the province of Helmand, 53 percent of the land available for agriculture is used to grow opium poppy. A stable 20 out of the 34 Afghan provinces are free of opium poppy, with the northern region maintaining its poppy-free status achieved in 2009.”