SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: Why should Iran keep doing Europe's "Dirty Work"?

https://x.com/RezaNasri1/status/2116788160881393687

Why should Iran keep doing Europe's "Dirty Work"?

In June 2025, as Israeli bombs fell on Iran, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told ZDF: "This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us." His remark revealed more than he perhaps intended. Europe has grown accustomed to others doing its dirty work. For more than four decades, Iran has done its share, standing between Afghanistan's poppy fields and Europe's streets, paying for it in blood and treasure. Iran has no reason to continue shouldering this burden.

These are not Iran's figures. They come from the United Nations. According to UNODC's "World Drug Report 2020", Iran accounted for 91% of global opium seizures and one-third of all heroin and morphine seizures. In 2017 alone, Iran seized more than 630 tonnes of opium, representing over 90% of the global total. In 2024, Iran once again reported the world's largest seizures of opium, morphine and heroin.

The human and financial costs have been enormous. More than 3,700 Iranian police officers and border guards have been killed fighting armed drug-smuggling convoys, and more than 12,000 have been maimed. Iran also spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year securing its eastern borders.

Europe's response has been to sanction the very country doing this work. Sanctions have made it difficult for Iran to purchase even basic equipment, including X-ray scanners for its anti-narcotics units. According to Iran's Drug Control Headquarters, Western countries have fulfilled only 30% of their anti-narcotics commitments. In 2025, Germany, France and the UK triggered the snapback of UN sanctions, after which the EU reimposed its own sanctions, including measures against Iran's Central Bank. Europe cannot strangle Iran's economy, applaud the bombing of its cities and still expect Iranian border guards to keep dying to protect European streets.

The United Nations once warned that Europe could face a "heroin tsunami" if Iran's interdiction efforts weakened. Iran prevented that from happening. Its reward was more sanctions.

Iran has no obligation to carry this burden alone. Tehran could adopt a different policy: establish a monitored corridor through which traffickers could enter from the east and pass through Iran's western borders towards Europe, under strict conditions ensuring that nothing remains in Iran. Iranians would remain protected. Europe would have to confront its drug problem at its own borders, and would quickly discover the true value of the dirty work Iran has been doing on its behalf.