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Russia says Iran regional backbone

Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov says Moscow highly values Iran as an independent country and regional backbone.

In Iranian Foreign Ministry caretaker Ali Akbar Salehi’s first foreign meeting on Sunday, Ivanov also expressed his country’s readiness to expand cooperation with Iran on fighting drug trafficking.

“Certain powers do not like the friendly relations between Iran and Russia, and so they always create obstacles in the way of Iran’s progress and development,” Mehr News Agency quoted Ivanov as saying.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase cooperation in fighting drug production and trafficking.

“Russia’s strategy is encouraging civil societies to pressure governments to resolve the drug problem in Afghanistan,” Ivanov added.

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

The poppy production and drug business in Afghanistan has come at a heavy cost for neighboring Iran.

With a 900-kilometer (560-mile) common border with Afghanistan, Iran has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to drug dealers in Europe.

Salehi said Iran is ready to cooperate with Russia in fighting drug trafficking, adding that “[we] should manage and resolve the problem through regional and international cooperation.”

Salehi also stressed the necessity of explicit dialogue in political interactions between two countries.

“Iran and Russia are two neighbors, which can be influential in regional affairs, and increasing political consultations can have positive effects on the region,” the Iranian official said.

Salehi added that Iran’s international and regional standing is quite clear and over the past 32 years the country has proved it can resist pressure through reliance on God and the Iranian nation’s resilience.

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