UK backs Iran's anti-drugs strategy

Co-operation on drugs is important to both countries

UK Cabinet Office Minister Mo Mowlam has pledged British co-operation with Iran in its fight against drug trafficking and addiction.

One of the things our countries have in common is a serious drug problem

Mo Mowlam

Ms Mowlam is beginning five days of talks in Iran, as the most senior British official to visit the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

She praised the "magnificent job" Iran was already doing to stop drugs being smuggled into Europe and Britain.

"Although Iran and the UK have many cultural differences, one of the things our countries have in common is a serious drug problem," she said in a news release.

Ms Mowlam, who has special responsibility for combating narcotics in the UK, will sign an agreement to work with Iran to fight the drug trade.

Mowlam is in Tehran at a delicate time

She will also pledge more financial support to train and equip Iranian customs and police officers to stem the flow of opium across the country's 600-mile border with Afghanistan.

About 3,000 Iranian police and soldiers have been killed in clashes with drug gangs over the past 20 years.

But her visit is being seen as conveying a political message as well.

Tension

Ms Mowlam arrived in Tehran at an extremely delicate time, both in Iran's relations with Europe and in the country's internal political situation.

We don't do any meeting without bringing up the human rights issues

Mo Mowlam

With a presidential election looming in June, political tensions between hardliners and reformists are currently extremely high.

Many prominent reformist figures have been prosecuted and jailed by the judiciary, which is a bastion of conservative power.

"We don't do any meeting without bringing up the human rights issues," Ms Mowlam told BBC Radio 4's the World This Weekend.

"We registered, they took it, we will see what happens."

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But she said it would be "overstating it" to say that relations between the UK and Iran were opening up.

Other European nations have voiced concerns for the human rights situation.

Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato was supposed to begin a three-day visit to the country on Saturday, but he cut it back to just a few hours after the trip came under strong attack in the Italian parliament.

The BBC's correspondent Jim Muir says that although relations with London have improved, they are bound to be complicated given Britain's controversial historical role in Iran.

But the field of co-operation in the fight against drugs is seen as a safe area in which the two sides can move forward.

Neutral ground

Although this bid is being kept studiously non-political it is the first time a British minister has been here since the revolution.

As such it is a clear sign that the two sides want to improve relations without getting mired in controversy.

Britain has long recognised the key role Iran has been playing in trying to stem the flow of narcotics to the west from neighbouring Afghanistan.

London has been providing direct support for Iran's efforts as well as funding roughly half of the UN's anti-narcotics operations in Iran.