TEHRAN - Interior Minister and Secretary General of Drug Control Headquarters (DCH) Abdorrahman Rahmani Fazli said Iran is ready to help Afghanistan to replace poppy cultivation with alternative crops.

Speaking to reporters on Monday on the sidelines of a meeting of anti-drugs officials of regional countries, Rahmani Fazli said Iran has the potentials to replace poppy cultivation in Afghanistan but it requires international cooperation.

Referring to producing over 6,400 tons of narcotics in Afghanistan, Rahmani Fazli said a decade of efforts to replace poppy with alternatives have failed because there has been no cooperation.

We are seeking international legal and technical support as well as equipment, he added.

While Iran is an influential country in fighting against narcotics, we are under sanctions for narcotics detection equipment, said the DCH secretary general.

'We hope to receive more confidential and complete information and also be supported financially in prevention and treatment fields.'

Iran takes the issue of fighting narcotics seriously and has had good success in it but more international help is needed.

We try to strengthen regional cooperation, especially between Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and we recently held a meeting of 11 regional countries to follow up the issue, said Rahmani Fazli. (FNA)