MIDEAST STATES DISCUSS REGIONAL DRUG TRAFFICKING;

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 003964

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

NICOSIA FOR DEA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR PREL XF JO
SUBJECT: MIDEAST STATES DISCUSS REGIONAL DRUG TRAFFICKING;
STRESS ENHANCED COOPERATION, INFORMATION SHARING


SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED


1. (U) The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,s
Subcommission on Illicit Drug Traffic and Related Matters in
the Near and Middle East met in Amman, Jordan, 23-27 June

2003. The functions of the Subcommission are to coordinate
regional activities directed against illicit drug traffic and
to formulate recommendations to the Commission on Narcotic
Drugs. It meets annually for a period of four days and
strives to strengthen the bonds of cooperation between member
states in combating the drug trafficking and addiction.
Embassy Amman Pol Intern attended with two representatives of
the DEA from Nicosia, Cyprus.


2. (U) Participants collectively highlighted three areas
of interest in the opening sessions of the conference:
combating the drug trade through high-level contact and
cooperation; breaking the heroin market by assisting
Afghanistan in setting up a legal, institutional framework to
retard outflow by 2013; and, providing Afghanistan with the
political, security, and financial assistance necessary to
rid that country of its sizable poppy crop. Members present
included Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Iran, UAE,
Lebanon, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, India, the United
States, Russia, and Germany. The Arab League, United Nations
Development Program, Saudi Arabia,s Prince Nayef Academy for
Security Sciences, and the World Customs Organization were
among the intergovernmental and United Nations bodies in
attendance.


3. (SBU) Although speakers in the first sessions spoke at
length about the importance of intergovernmental cooperation,
it was clear from their remarks that little, in fact,
existed. Instead, participants lauded the efforts of
individual states in intercepting large quantities of drugs
within and at their borders. Given that most experts agree
that the Middle East is a critical transit zone between
suppliers in Central, South, and South-East Asia and areas of
consumption in Europe and North America, participants devoted
considerable attention to developing joint investigations,
law enforcement training, and information sharing.


4. (SBU) The Subcommission established ad-hoc working
groups to review issues of regional importance and to
facilitate informal discussions. These sessions provided
participants with a forum in which to praise one another (and
themselves) for individual state achievements while
paradoxically making veiled criticisms of one another for not
doing enough to prevent outflow from their borders. In
particular, India and Pakistan, and Pakistan and the United
Arab Emirates, traded barbs regarding porous borders and the
ability of precursors and final products to slip past
officials.


5. (SBU) Veiled criticism of Afghanistan dominated most
sessions, despite the absence of Afghan representatives at
the conference. Afghanistan remains the world,s largest
producer of opium, with an estimated 85 thousand hectares of
cultivation this year. At the same time, the country today
maintains no industries that require the precursor chemicals
necessary to produce final products for export, suggesting
that the inflow of such products into Afghanistan only
furthers the production of opium and opium derivatives.
Participants called for bilateral and multilateral approaches
to eradicate this year,s poppy crop; involving
non-governmental organizations in the process; and,
encouraging greater research on drug abuse prevention.


6. (U) The Subcommission called for the dismantling of
regional clandestine laboratories, targeting new trafficking
routes, and discussing the latest means of smuggling final
products and precursors (including container traffic). In
spite of pledges of assistance, experts warned that
Afghanistan would not have the capability to deter
trafficking significantly for years. Instead, the meeting
suggested that the regional and international focus for
Afghanistan should be on drug storage, cross-contamination,
and preserving chain of evidence at Afghan police stations.
Participants in plenary and working group sessions agreed on
the need to adopt regional control mechanisms; maintain lines
of communication between offices; establish regular meetings
for operational heads; create a regional database to track
offenders and routes; and, adopt container profiling
strategies currently in place in advanced industrialized
ports.


7. (SBU) COMMENT: Given the level of generality of the
discussions at the conference and the clear reliance of the
participant nations on unilateral control and enforcement
measures, we doubt that much concrete progress will come from
the conference. We defer to DEA Nicosia on the desirability
and viability of the specific recommendations from the
conference
GNEHM