On Wednesday, July 12th, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi begins his three-day African tour, visiting Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Accompanied by a delegation of entrepreneurs, Mr. Raïsi will meet his three counterparts. This marks the first tour of Africa by an Iranian leader in eleven years, demonstrating Tehran’s diplomatic offensive.
Ebrahim Raïssi’s delegation, consisting of businessmen, will meet William Ruto of Kenya, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe during this tour. Tehran seeks to expand political and economic partnerships to circumvent Western sanctions imposed due to its nuclear program, as reflected by this African tour.
“It’s a new start with African countries”, said the head of the Iranian diplomacy earlier this week. Countries which, according to him, are “very eager to develop their relationship with Iran” on the economic and commercial levels.
Trying to Get Out of a Serious Economic Crisis
Iran, which is going through a serious economic crisis with record inflation in particular, hopes, thanks to this diplomatic offensive, to find a way out of the many challenges it faces. It is also part of a framework that Mr. Raïssi explained when receiving the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, to develop political and economic relations with Algiers as with the three African capitals he is currently visiting.
Tehran has at the same time strengthened its relations with Moscow and Beijing. President Raisi recently visited Indonesia and his country has just joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). He took the opportunity to reiterate his call to break the hegemony of the dollar on the world economy.
Last June, the President of the Islamic Republic also toured three “friendly countries” of Latin America, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. During these trips, he then denounced “the imperialist powers”, notably targeting the United States.