Italy calls for reviving ties with Iran

The Italian foreign minister says Rome is interested in reviving bilateral ties with Tehran, especially in fighting drug trafficking and terrorism.

“It’s no secret that Italy is seeking to revive once strong bilateral relations with Iran. Above all with regard to direct collaboration on combating drug traffic and terrorism at the Afghan borders,” Franco Frattini said on Sunday.

“If we succeed in obtaining an Iranian commitment on Afghanistan, it will be in everyone’s interests,” Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website quoted Frattini as saying.

The Italian foreign minister added that Rome is especially interested in “collaborating with Iranian border forces.”

“We have invited the Iranians to a meeting of all the special envoys for Afghanistan on 18 October in Rome,” Frattini said, adding that Tehran has accepted the invitation.

Earlier in September, Iran called for attention and support from the international community for its costly anti-narcotics efforts at the United Nations General Assembly.

Iranian officials believe that the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan is the main reason behind the increasing rate of drug production in the country.

Afghanistan accounts for 90 percent of the world’s illicit opium and heroin production, the UN drug monitoring body said in its 2010 report.

Iran has spent over 600 million dollars in the last two years to dig canals, build barriers and install barbed wire to seal off areas of entry at its border with Afghanistan. Its efforts have led to the confiscation of nearly 370 tons of narcotics in the past six months.

The drug trade originating in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 Iranian police officers over the past 30 years.