Afghanistan/Iran/Pakistan: After Taliban Opium Ban, New Global Hub Emerges in Afghan Borderlands with Iran, Pakistan

Oct 24, 2026 | Frud Bezhan and Daud Khattak
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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Afghanistan's opium output, long the world's largest, has plunged since the Taliban imposed a sweeping ban on illicit narcotics in 2022. But the militant Islamist group has failed to eradicate cultivation completely, while production appears to have increasingly shifted to neighboring Pakistan and Iran.