Ambassador Khaddour: Syria believes that combatting drug trafficking is a joint international responsibility

Vienna, SANA-Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Vienna, Hasan Khaddour, said that Syria is making unremitting efforts to combat drug trafficking and smuggling by adopting strategies and plans in this regard.

 “Syria, based on its national and humanitarian responsibility, and in implementation of its international obligations, has supported all means of cooperation in combating drugs and psychotropic substances, and has ratified the international conventions related to combating drugs,” Ambassador Khaddour said in an official statement during a high-level meeting of the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

The Syrian diplomat added that Syria has suffered for more than thirteen years from an unjust terrorist war in which all weapons were used, including drugs when terrorist organizations used them as one of their tools and weapons, and a main source of funding, taking advantage of the complex political and security conditions and the geographical location of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Ambassador Khaddour stressed that efforts exerted by the authorities concerned in Syria led to thwarting several narcotic smuggling operations and confiscating large quantities of narcotic substances.  “During 2023, nearly 11,331 cases were seized and 10,024,166 Captagon pills were confiscated,” he said.

Ambassador Khaddour concluded that the escalation of the drugs problem and the increase in the activity of drug dealers and smugglers make it imperative for us, more than ever before, to double the efforts and find appropriate and effective mechanisms to enhance cooperation, saying “Syria continues to implement its national strategy in the coming period from 2024 to 2029, and is open to all forms of cooperation in this regard.”

Mazen Eyon