TEHRAN -- Iran and Russia have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the campaign against drugs, Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Sunday.

Najjar made the remarks in Tehran during a joint press conference with Viktor Ivanov, the director of the Federal Service for Narcotics Traffic Control of the Russian Federation.
According to the MOU, Iran and Russia have agreed to establish a joint workshop in order to help stop the cultivation of illicit drugs and the activities of heroin-producing laboratories in Afghanistan and to crack down on smuggling gangs in the region, he said.
The fact that Iran and Russia are on the main transit route of smuggled drugs was the main reason for the decision to sign the MOU on cooperation in drug control efforts, he added.
Najjar said that the international community should support Iran and help the country in its campaign against drugs.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he stated that Iran has taken the greatest number of measures in the campaign against drugs, adding that 3,700 Iranians have been killed and 11,000 have been injured in clashes with smugglers in eastern, western, and northwestern Iran.
Ivanov said Iran and Russia have been cooperating in the campaign against drugs since 2005, when the two countries signed an agreement on the issue.
He went on to say that the cultivation of illicit drugs has not only not decreased in Afghanistan but has actually increased since foreign troops began their occupation of the country nine years ago.
He said the decision to sign the MOU shows the two nations’ strong resolve to fight against the scourge of drugs.
Representatives of the two countries will also meet twice a year, in Russia and Iran alternatively, he added.