2024-02-17 19:00:02
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Interior ministers from four Arab countries held talks in Jordan on Saturday to discuss ways to combat the illegal drug trade in the region, and agreed to establish a joint regional telecommunications cell to exchange information.
In the meeting between the interior ministers of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, the four officials recognized that “there is a big problem, which is drugs, and all our societies suffer from it,” the interior minister told the press. of Jordan, Mazen Al-Faraya, after the meeting.
Drug trafficking has been a source of tension between Jordan and Syria, and the Jordanian air force has reportedly carried out strikes in southern Syria against suspected drug traffickers and factories. In recent years, traffickers have used Jordan as a corridor to smuggle Captagon’s highly addictive amphetamine pills from Syria, primarily to oil-rich Arabian Gulf countries.
The vast majority of the world’s Captagon is produced in Syria, with minor production in neighboring Lebanon. Western governments estimate that Captagon has generated billions of dollars in profits for President Bashar Assad, as well as his Syrian partners and allies. Damascus has denied those accusations.
The meeting in Amman came almost a month after the Syrian Foreign Minister condemned alleged Jordanian airstrikes against suspected drug traffickers in Syrian territory. In response, Jordan accused Syrian authorities of failing to crack down on border trafficking.
On January 18, a suspected Jordanian airstrike in southern Syria killed at least nine people, including women and children.
Jordanian authorities have managed to stop several trafficking attempts, including some in which traffickers used drones to fly drugs across the border.
“Today we agreed that if there is no joint cooperation by the countries that participated in the meeting, there will not be results like those we seek,” Al-Faraya said.
“Today we agree that this problem exists,” Al-Faraya said, adding that the ministers agreed to continue meetings at the ministerial and technical levels.
He pointed out that the main objective of establishing the joint telecommunications cell is for the authorities of the four countries to exchange experiences and, “more importantly, to track drug shipments that come from the countries to their final destination.” .
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