UN Envoy: Iran Victim of Terrorists, Transnational Criminals

In an address to the United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday, Takht Ravanchi highlighted the Islamic Republic’s efforts in the fight against international terrorism and transnational organized crimes over the past 40 years.

He also pointed to the statistics for the human losses and financial costs that Iran has incurred in the war on terrorism, organized crimes and narcotics, saying the country continues to combat those menaces.

The following is the full text of his speech:

In the Name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Mr. President,

I thank you for organizing this meeting. My thanks also go to the Executive Directors of the UNODC and the CTED for their input.

As global concerns, both international terrorism and transnational organized crimes require global response and the United Nations has a decisive role to play in regard to both cases. While the Security Council should continue its role on international terrorism, issues related to transnational organized crimes must be dealt with only by the General Assembly.

Terrorist and criminal groups have different motives and use different methods. However, the impacts of their activities are very similar; both are extremely disruptive and exceedingly destructive.

Iran is the victim of the activities of both terrorist groups and transnational criminals. At the same time, we are at the forefront of combating both menaces.

In the past four decades, 17,161 Iranian citizens, including almost 200 high-ranking political figures, among them one President, one Prime Minister, one Judiciary Chief, one Deputy Chief of Armed Forces and 27 MPs, as well as four nuclear scientists, have been martyred by foreign-backed terrorist groups.

The MKO, which is responsible for the killing of at least 12,000 Iranian civilians and many Iraqi citizens, as well as a number of other nationalities, continues to receive funds from certain countries in the region while enjoying the support of certain States including in Europe.

Moreover, after being delisted as a terrorist group by the US, MKO is now active in this country and its members are closely cooperating with the US intelligence community for disruptive and destructive plots and plans against Iran.

Cognizant of the serious threat posed by terrorist groups in our region, Iran has assisted Iraq and Syria, upon their request, in combating the most dangerous terrorist groups.

In our neighborhood, terrorist groups and organized criminals are involved mostly in trafficking of drugs and, in certain cases, of arms and cultural properties in order to finance their activities.

Therefore, along with terrorist groups, we have also engaged seriously in countering organized criminals, mainly those involved in drug trafficking.

As a result, in the past 40 years, 3,815 of our law enforcement forces have lost their lives and over 12,000 others have been wounded.

In the past three decades, Iran has seized approximately 11,000 tons of different types of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

In 2018 alone, our law enforcement forces carried out 1,557 operations against drug traffickers, seizing approximately 807 tons of different types of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Our outstanding activities in combating drug traffickers have always been acknowledged at the global level.

For instance, according to the “World Drug Report 2019” of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2017, Iran had seized “the largest quantity of opiates … accounting for 39 per cent of the global total”.

Likewise, during the same period, the largest quantities of opium as well as the second largest quantities of morphine and heroin were also seized by Iran.

We are determined to continue our efforts in combating terrorists and drug traffickers. However, to ensure the continuity and effectiveness of our efforts, the international community must assist Iran, of course without precondition, discrimination or politicization.

I shall also refer to the detrimental effects of unilateral sanctions in undermining our efforts to counter terrorism and organized crimes.

Countries imposing such unlawful sanctions have to be reminded that their sanction policy seriously weakens the effectiveness of counter-narcotic efforts of transit countries.

Ultimately, our success in countering these menaces is dependent largely on our genuine political will, comprehensive approach and non-discriminatory cooperation and assistance.

I thank you, Mr. President.