Najjar urges ECO states to broaden security co-op

Istanbul, Dec 25, IRNA – Iran's Interior Ministr Mostapha Mohammad Najjar here on Friday called on the ECO states to expand security cooperation and speed up forming ECO data bank.

Addressing the Third ECO Interior Ministers Meeting in Istanbul, Najjar said ECO states lie in one of the most challenging parts of the world and terrorism, drugs smuggling, and ultra-national organized crimes have created many problems for them.

Due to the same reason, grounds should be prepared for security cooperation among the members, he added.

Stressing that the said security problems are intertwined, Najjar said ignoring each of the challenges would weaken the states, and the negative impact would start spreading to whole the ECO body.

Expediting formation of the ECO Data Bank and the ECO Police (ECOPol), making optimal use of the Interpol and cooperation among the ECO states' police in fighting bioterrorism and new terrorist threats such as cyberterrorism would be among the ways to counter the said challenges, he added./end