US Chargé d&Affaires Karen Decker met with Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials in Doha on Wednesday for talks on counter-narcotic measures.In a series of posts on X, Decker said: &Colleagues and I met a working-level Taliban (IEA) delegation yesterday in Doha for technical talks on counter-narcotics, an area of mutual concern in support of the Afghan people.
We discussed eradication, interdiction, addiction treatment, and alternative livelihoods.Invaluable to hear in advance the recommendations of Afghan experts inside/outside Afghanistan on how the international community can help and how critical the role of Afghan women is in all aspects of the counter-narcotics effort — we will not succeed without them.She said narcotics have long been a humanitarian and economic catastrophe for the Afghan people and the world.
&We look forward to working with the UN and other stakeholders to support the Afghan people's aspiration of eliminating the scourge of illegal drugs once and for all,& she added.In turn, Suhail Shaheen, the IEA's envoy to Qatar, also posted to X and said an anti-narcotics team from Kabul, including Janan Azizi, country director of the IEA's anti-narcotic department; Rahman Qasimi, assistant to the deputy-minister of interior for anti-narcotic affairs; and Mirwais Qaderi from security and borders affairs department of IEA's foreign ministry, attended the meeting.They detailed efforts being made against poppy cultivation, drug trafficking and treatment of addicts.
&We welcome the UN monitoring team and the international community to visit areas in Afghanistan where poppy cultivation has been eradicated.However, there is a dire need for alternative livelihood projects for farmers in Afghanistan whose poppy fields have been cleared,& he said.The post US envoy to Afghanistan discusses anti-narcotics efforts with IEA officials first appeared on Ariana News.