Iran and Turkey discuss security issues

Iran and Turkey have discussed ways to broaden security cooperation and combat drug trafficking, Fars reports.

Iranian Deputy Interior Minister for Security and Law Enforcement, Ali Abdollahi, said that during the first round of the meeting that ended on Monday security officials from both countries discussed various issues including Iranian pilgrims travelling to Syria via Turkey.

Tehran and Ankara have expanded their relations and cooperation in various security fields in recent years. In April, a senior Iranian anti-drugs official announced close cooperation between Iran and Turkey in fighting drug trafficking, and said the two countries' police forces disbanded 15 drug cartels last year.

"Over the last?two years effective steps have been taken in fighting illegal drug trafficking and gangs in cooperation with the Turkish police," the commander of the anti-drug squad of Iran's Law Enforcement Police, General Hamid Reza Hossein-Abadi, told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting in April with Turkey's high commissioner for fighting drugs and organized crime, Ahmet Pek.