Former Defense Department Official: 'The US Could Easily Cooperate With Iran' On Afghan Drug War (VIDEO)

Joseph Blady, former USDOD Program Officer, joined HuffPost Live this week to discuss drugs in Iran and Afghanistan. Iran is central to the drug war, Blady told host Alicia Mendenez, as "about a third of the Afghan opium and heroin go through Iran," and "they have a vested interest in that they have steadily had approximately two percent of the population addicted to heroin."

The U.S. also needs to take action against drug production in Afghanistan, Blady argued, as "a lot of the proceeds go into weapons that fight against our armed forces." Given these shared concerns for the U.S. and Iran over Afghan opium production, Blady believes "the U.S. could easily cooperate with Iran."

Blady cautioned that steps in that direction would run into conflict over the issues of "sharing of intelligence and positioning counter-narcotics forces along the Afghan-Iranian border."

"It would take a leap of faith for us to be able to cooperate with them smoothly," he admitted, given longstanding distrust between the two countries.

Watch the full segment at HuffPost Live