Statement
by H.E. Dr. M. Javad Zarif
Permanent
Representative of the Islamic Republic
of Iran
on the Situation in Afghanistan
before the Security Council
17 June 2003
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In
the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Mr. President,
More than a year and half after the collapse of the Taliban, Afghanistan still languishes in a strange limbo between war and peace. Though the ouster of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from power has been a relief for the Afghans, the region and the international community, the country is yet to find itself on an irreversible path towards stability and normalcy. The authority of the central government is yet to spread to whole Afghanistan and lack of security across the country, including in the capital, is still the underlying problem. The recent suicide-bomb attack on German troops in Kabul, which regrettably killed four soldiers, was but the latest in a series of attacks.
Continuing
security problems are especially damaging at a time when drafting and approving
of a new constitution and holding of general elections, laid out by the Bonn conference, should be
completed by next June. Such problems have also discouraged domestic and
foreign investment, thus slowing down the country's economic regeneration.
The effect of failing
to focus on security, coupled with lack of sufficient funds for reconstruction,
has created a negative trend in Afghanistan.
To reverse the trend, sharp increase in international assistance is needed,
especially in empowering the new Afghan Army, which still numbers only about
4,000 to 5,000 troops stationed mostly around Kabul -far short of the 70,000 or more already
projected. Consequently, the dependence of the central Government on local
commanders to keep order has thus far come at the expense of the central
authority and lies a the root of a number of problems.
The Afghan
people as well as their neighbors, who incurred enormous losses for more than
two decades as a result of lawlessness and instability in Afghanistan, expect that the
international community not shirk away from its commitments to the Afghans. To
do otherwise would amount to abandoning Afghanistan to chaos, leaving the country
wide open for the Taliban and Osama bin Laden to move
back in and turn it, once more, into a base for their illegal activities.
Already, the evidence
of such a surge in hostile activities in Afghanistan is abundant: the
Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Hekmatyar’s
group have regrouped. In the past two weeks, they carried out 20 operations
against the security forces and people loyal to the Government, using more
lethal and sophisticated devices and explosives. While they are more
concentrated in eastern provinces, areas in central Afghanistan are increasingly
targeted. Their increasingly centralized and visible leadership, including
previous as well as new emerging leaders, is more outspoken and active in
talking to the media, inciting the Afghans to oppose the central government.
And the list goes on and on.
Mr. President,
My country, as one of Afghanistan’s neighbors, is particularly
concerned over the continued rise in opium production in Afghanistan. Despite the
commendable efforts made by the Afghan Transitional Administration and the UN
system, Afghanistan
continues to be the main centre of illicit opium production in the world and,
as the Secretary-General asserted in his latest report, poppy cultivation and
the production and trafficking in drugs remain a major national and
international concern.
Undoubtedly, insecurity
and drug trafficking in Afghanistan
are mutually reinforcing and both contribute, in turn, to terrorism and other forms
of transnational crimes. Across the globe, the lines between international
organized crime and global terrorism have become impossibly blurred and the
links between them have grown in the past decade. The recognition of this reality
should compel governments to begin revamping their strategy for the war on, both,
terrorism and drug trafficking.
Mr. President,
We support the
idea of promoting, under the UN auspices, a comprehensive anti-drug strategy
based on close cooperation between the parties concerned and the Afghan
Transitional Administration. Meanwhile, we believe that such a comprehensive
strategy should be all-encompassing, thus bringing all actors and interested
parties, including civil society and governments from source, transit and destination
countries together. It should also aim
at addressing all aspects of the problem, including opium cultivation, drug
processing, trafficking and abuse.
The problem
resides as much on the supply side as on the demand side. Insecurity in Afghanistan,
which I referred to earlier, and the collapse of the economic infrastructure in
that country, giving rise to wide-spread unemployment and lack of economic
activities, are among the main problems, which should
be addressed on the supply side. Thus, the Afghan reconstruction should get
effectively underway. Crop substitution requires a credit system. The Afghan
drug law enforcement should be trained, equipped and financed. These are some
of the measures that are required on the supply side. Obviously, the Afghan
administration, as a newly constituted entity, simply cannot single-handedly be
up to the task and needs wide-ranging assistance.
Combating
drug-trafficking requires assisting the transit countries so as to enable them
to build necessary capacity to intercept narcotic shipments. They need assistance
in variety of areas such as information and intelligence sharing and new
detecting and communicating methods and technologies. And there should be no
doubt that addressing the problem at the source and transit countries is much
cheaper for the destination countries.
However, it is
obvious that without successful efforts on the demand side with a view to
considerably reducing demand, the fight against traffickers cannot come to
fruition. As long as the prospect for huge windfall persists, it continues to
be very difficult to put an end to the deadly business of drug trafficking.
Undoubtedly, the possible decrease in supply as a result of actions in the
source and transit countries leads only to the increase in price of drugs, thus
creating stronger motivation for growers and traffickers.
Mr. President,
The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a neighbor of Afghanistan,
is the primary transit route for narcotics to the West and, at the same time, has
itself become a destination country. Therefore, we have always attached
paramount importance to fighting drug trafficking and urged the international
community to join hands in this endeavor. As recognized in the latest report of
the Secretary-General, Iran
addresses the problem at the source by providing resources for labor-intensive
public works and infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. Moreover, we have provided
assistance to the Afghan government in a variety of ways including investing in
crop substitution, training Afghan law enforcement officers in Iran, training
and equipping Afghan law enforcement offices in 5 Afghan provinces and building
25 sentry posts for the Afghan Government. According to our estimates, the
total value of Iran’s contribution
to various projects for reconstruction of Afghanistan exceeded 68 million
dollars as of March 2003.
My country has paid a very heavy human and material toll
in its fight against drug trafficking. As a result, Iran has always topped by far the overall
global drug seizures. And as a destination country, the Iranian agencies
implement various initiatives to tackle drug abuse. The international community
can always count on our readiness to effectively contribute to the global
combat against traffic in narcotics.
Thank you Mr. President.