Kazem Gharib Abadi said on Friday that the selfless efforts of the Iranian soldiers and law enforcement officers at the borders and inside the country has put the country at the forefront of the fight against drug trafficking.
He said some 814,477 kilograms of various types of narcotics were confiscated in 2019, which included opium (656,258 kg), heroin (17,414 kg), morphine (18,185 kg), cannabis (73,928 kg) and methamphetamine (13,570 kg).
Five Iranian police personnel were also martyred in the clashes with drug traffickers in 2019, Gharib Abadi said.
The Iranian envoy deplored some countries that deny Iran's role in the fight against drug trafficking, saying they also refrain from doing their share of responsibility in this regard.
The Islamic Republic has been actively fighting drug trades originating from Afghanistan in the past four decades, despite its high economic and human costs. The country has spent more than hundreds of millions of dollars on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
The war on drug trade has also claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past four decades.
MNA/4833934