INTERIOR MINISTER CRITICIZES WESTERN WAR ON DRUGS, TERRORISM. Interior Minister Abdolvahed Musavi-Lari said on 31 May in Tehran that some 5,000 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan in the year up to March and "such an immense volume...was certainly for export," ISNA reported the same day. He said drugs are produced in spite of Western forces being in Afghanistan. "That shows [Western countries] are not thinking of fighting drugs and we cannot...wait for them," he told a visiting Kuwaiti Interior Ministry official, Ahmad Abd al-Latif al-Rajib.

Furthermore, Western countries "oppose terrorism that threatens their interests and support it when it serves their interests," ISNA quoted him as saying. "Westerners...tolerate and cooperate" with the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, an Iranian rebel group hostile to the Tehran government, "but oppose Al-Qaeda, which they themselves created," he said. "We think they both constitute terrorism," he added.

Meanwhile, Deputy Interior Minister Ashraf Borujerdi said in Tehran on 31 May that drugs are now sold in Iran on the Internet "and this method...cannot be controlled," ILNA reported the same day. Ecstasy has replaced opium as the drug of choice among young people, she said. (Vahid Sepehri)

Iran Report - RFE/RL