Baghdad and Tehran to fortify border to thwart drug smugglers

Iran is the main source of crystal methamphetamine that enters Iraq

Captagon tablets seized by authorities. Drug use in Iraq has greatly increased. AFP

Iraq and Iran will work together to boost security along their shared border of more than 1,500km in an effort to thwart drug smuggling.

The agreement was reached on the first day of Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul Amir Al Shamari's visit to Tehran.

“We consider this visit a very important one to discuss a lot of issues with the brothers at the Iranian Interior Ministry,” Mr Al Shamari said on Tuesday.

“Parts of these borders are in water, undulating lands and mountains and … co-operation [is needed] to control these borders through fortification, observation and intelligence sharing.

“We handed over to the Iranian side the intelligence we have about smuggling networks that are active on both sides of the borders and we will work together to put an end to them.”

Before the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraq was considered to be a corridor for the smuggling of drugs to neighbouring countries.

But since then, drug use in the country has greatly increased.

Security and health officials said the porous borders were due to the weak governments that followed, widespread corruption among security forces and a lack of co-operation between government agencies.

Captagon has become the second most widely used drug in the country, according to the Health Ministry, overtaking tramadol, heroin and hashish and behind only crystal methamphetamine.

Iran is the main source of the crystal methamphetamine found in the country while Syria is the source of most of the Captagon, Iraqi officials have said. Lebanon is also a source.

However, drugs also come from Turkey or from Iran via the self-ruled Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.

Both sides also discussed ways to control the entry of Iranian pilgrims during major Shiite religious events expected to start in July and to continue throughout August.

Last year, about two million Iranian pilgrims entered Iraq to attend Arbaeen, one of the world's biggest religious gatherings, in the Shiite city of Karbala.

Every year, chaos erupts at the border due to the large number of Iranian pilgrims while dozens have been killed in car accidents on their way to Iraq's Karbala province.

“We discussed the shortcomings that happened during the Arbaeen pilgrimage last year and the ways to avoid them through co-operation in order to facilitate the entry of the Iranian pilgrims and their return safely,” Mr Al Shamari said.

Arbaeen marks the end of the 40-day mourning period for the killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, by the forces of the second Umayyad caliph, Yazid bin Muawiyah, in 680AD.