Iranian drug war

We rarely hear about any common ground between Iran and the west.  That kind of press coverage just doesn’t jive with the company hard line.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Drug traffickers in well-armed desert convoys roll across the border from Afghanistan. Standing in their way are Iranian soldiers and drug agents trying to choke off one of the world's busiest pipelines for opium and heroin.

The battles - waged far from the world's attention in the arid badlands of eastern Iran - represent one of the dwindling patches of common ground between Tehran and the West. The United States has applauded Iran's anti-drug campaign and European nations help fund the fight.

But in the efforts against Tehran’s nuclear policies this common ground is on the chopping block.  Another example of how little the drug war really matters?

A "heroin tsunami" could hit Europe if the drug interdiction by Iran is weakened, warned Antonio Maria Costa, the director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.  "We should definitely assist Iran in this respect," he said.

But now this international support could be threatened by the standoff over Tehran's nuclear policies.

Western nations have told Iran that they could cut off any new help to Iran's anti-drug units unless the Islamic regime halts uranium enrichment, which Washington and its allies worry could be used to develop nuclear arms.

The new stance is a sharp departure from the strong - but mostly behind-the-scenes - cooperation the United States and other Western countries forged with Iran on Afghanistan after the Taliban's fall in late 2001.