The executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said Iran is the international body’s “number one partner.”

“In war on drugs, Iran is the number one partner of the United Nations,” the UNODC official has noted, according to a report by IRNA on Sunday.

The comments came as the 56th session of Commission on Narcotic Drugs is scheduled to kick off in Vienna on Monday. The session will last until March 15.

Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, who is also the secretary general of Iran Drug Control Headquarters, will attend the first two days of the session along with a high-ranking delegation.

In January, Fedotov said that Iran’s effective role in the fight against drug traffickers and the discovery of drugs has been highlighted in all UN reports and assessments.

Iran has a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has frequently been used as the main conduit for the smuggling of Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.

The Islamic Republic has spent more than USD700 million to seal the borders and prevent the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab, and Central Asian countries.

The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past 33 years.
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News ID 184429