WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rejecting suggestions that Iran has strengthened its drug control policies, two Republican lawmakers are urging President Clinton to keep the Persian Gulf nation on an official list of drug problem countries.
Citing news reports that Iran will be dropped from the list, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., said there is no basis for suggesting Iranian drug enforcement has been strengthened.Grassley is chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control and Gilman is chairman of the House International Relations Committee. They outlined their position in a letter to Clinton this week.
Reports have circulated that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has suggested Iran be removed from the list of drug problem countries. Each February, those countries are evaluated on whether they are fully cooperating with U.S. counternarcotics efforts.
Countries judged noncooperative could face economic penalties, although that issue does not arise in Iran's case because it already is subject to comprehensive economic sanctions for reasons unrelated to narcotics. Still, Iran is one of seven countries "decertified" by the United States because of noncooperation with U.S. counternarcotics efforts.
An internal administration debate over Iran is believed to have delayed the White House release of this year's list of countries considered to be drug source or drug transit countries. The deadline for submission of the list to Congress was Nov. 1.
The debate is taking place against a background of administration hopes of opening a political dialogue with Iran. Iran has shown no interest in such a dialogue, though some members of its government have sought other ways of reducing the two countries' antagonism.
Grassley and Gilman wrote that any effort to remove Iran from the list is not based on substantive grounds but on the "speculative hope that such a unilateral gesture will win diplomatic points in Iran for some anticipated rapprochement."
"This is a triumph of hope over experience," they wrote.
White House spokesman David Leavy dismissed the suggestion that Clinton's goal of opening a political dialogue with Iran will influence his decision. He said the decisions regarding Iran and other countries will be based solely on specific criteria related to counternarcotics efforts.
Large drug hauls are common in Iran, which lies on a route used by smugglers to get drugs from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Europe and the oil-rich Persian Gulf.