US embassy cable - 03AMMAN3964

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