TEHRAN, Iran – Iran
threatened Saturday to allow the transit of illegal drugs through its
territory to Europe if the West continues to criticize the Islamic
nation for its practice of executing drug traffickers.
Mohammad
Javad Larijani, the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, said
Iran was sacrificing blood in fighting drug trafficking and suggested it
is unfair that it is then condemned by the West for executing
smugglers.
“Westerners have to either be Iran’s partner in the
fight against drug traffickers or we must think otherwise and, for
instance, allow the transit” of drugs across Iranian territory, Larijani
said in a comment posted on the judiciary’s website Saturday.
He
said such a move would reduce the number of overall executions in Iran
by 74 per cent, “but the way will be paved for the smuggling of
narcotics to Europe.”
U.N. officials have in the past warned that a “heroin tsunami” could hit Europe if the drug interdiction by Iran is weakened.
Iran
says it has lost more than 3,700 troops in the fight against drug
traffickers and 11,000 more have been injured to date since 1979, when
the Islamic Revolution brought hard-line clerics to power.
“Unfortunately,
Western countries not only provide no assistance to Iran…
