Alwaght- The Iranian President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi is in Algeria generally for conference of gas exporting nations but particularly seeking a chance to return Iran to the African nations after years of distraction from this continent, at least its north.
Upon his arrival in the capital Algiers, he was given a formal reception by Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui.
He then took part in the meeting of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
His siezed the opportunity to condemn the Israeli crimes in Gaza and decried the world inaction in the face of the imposed famine in the Palestinian enclave, saying that Gaza circumstances are the "yardstick of humanity, morality, and conscience of human society."
He then made a set of bilateral meetings with African leaders, among them Tunisian President Kais Saied and Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi.
Iran's Africa policy has so far experienced many ups and downs. The fact that Raisi's visit to Algeria is the first in 14 years may well explain this. The last visit of an Iranian president to Algeria was made by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a man who could not hide his enthusiasm to expand ties with Africa, not just its north but all of it. He visited various African countries during his eight years as a president. His visits even extended to small African nations. In March 2013, three years after his Algeria visit, he visited Benin, Niger, and Ghana, where he discussed expansion of economic and political ties.
Ahmadinejad had visited Sudan in 2011 and met the time's President Omar al-Bashir. The nature of Iranian-Sudanese ties was a little bit different. Sudan at the time was backing Iran's anti-imperialist policy and said that he stood with Tehran against the Western-Israeli front. Western powers even accused al-Bashir of delivering Iranian arms to Hamas.
The Iranian efforts to gain a foothold in Africa in past decade was driven by an interest to take on Israel in Africa, and Tehran was largely successful in pursuit of its goal. Driven by heightened oil revenues, the country invested and established companies, including car manufacturing, in Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal and some other countries, raising the trade to acceptable levels, though not enough as the Western countries hampered this policy in 2010s.
Then came President Hassan Rouhani who almost buried Ahmadinejad's policy and sought to engage with the West while the latter actually sought a submissive Iranian nation in stark contrast to the pro-independence pathway and mindset of the Islamic Republic.
Under President Rouhani, Tehran neglected what Ahmadinejad had built of ties with Africa, as the case was with North America. Car factories and other industries closed down and trade with Africa fell to record lows. Exports to Africa, for example, under Rouhani administration dropped to about $500 million in 2021 from over $1 billion in 2013. Diplomatically, Iran's Africa embassies were reduced in number and Africa section at the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs was closed down. Also, Iranian delegation ceased its presence in the African Union after 14 years.
In August 2021, President Sayyed Ibrahim Raisi was sworn in as a president. Since the beginning, Raisi made it crystal clear that Tehran will not beg the West for friendly ties and the East and other parts of the world were new points of Iranian foreign policy focus. Shortly after his presidency, Raisi managed to finalize Iran's accession to Shanghai Cooperation Organization and then BRICS. Meanwhile, he was not ignorant of Africa. He made visits to various African nations.
In July last year, he went on an African tour that saw him visiting Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Before Raisi's tour, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani told reporters that Africa was a “continent of opportunities” that wants to engage with Iran and Tehran is eager to reciprocate.
“We can describe this trip as a new starting point to have a surge in economic and trade ties alongside boosting political and cultural relations with countries on this continent,” he said.
Alireza Peyman Pak, a former head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organisation and now an agriculture ministry official, told state television that Iran had been “neglecting” opportunities in Africa in recent years as China and a number of Tehran’s neighbours, including Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, have strengthened their presence on the continent.
"An African dollar is the same as a European dollar. Interests are the same. The global economy requires us to interact with any opportunities on an international scale and improve our foreign currency incomes," Peyman Pak said.
Speaking during a joint media briefing in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Raisi said: “The African continent is a continent of capacity and opportunity. Kenya boasts great capacities, and we as Iran also want to exchange in those capacities by contributing to our enhancement in bilateral relations.”
The rising Iranian ambitions for re-engaging Africa comes amid declining Western and Israeli influence in this continent. French military was kicked out of Niger and some other African countries after a series of pro-Eastern military coups that swept West Africa . Israel is losing its toehold, too. South Africa sued it for its war crimes in Gaza at International Court of Justice as a sign of declining relation with Africa. In February last year, African Union suspended Israel's observer status and Israeli envoy was removed with humiliation from a meeting of the union.
Iran is already closely watching these developments. Iran is specially focusing on Algeria, a country whose policy and pro-Palestinian stances are in line with those of Islamic Republic. Algeria is one of the key opponents of the normalization of relations of some Arab and Islamic countries with Israel. This country managed to suspend the observer status of this Tel Aviv in the African Union with its continuous efforts.
Since the beginning of 2022, Algeria has been planning to hold reconciliation dialogue meetings between Palestinian groups (14 Palestinian currents) and finally, after several rounds of dialogue, it issued the Algerian Declaration in October 2022 with the aim of drawing a roadmap for inter-Palestinian reconciliation. The country also drafted a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire in Gaza two week ago, but the US vetoed it.
Iran more than once hailed the Algerian efforts, saying that this presents an example for other states to support the Palestinian cause.
Though Iran and Africa have much to do to build a full-scale partnership, Raisi's administration over the past two years has shown that it has the adequate determination to Re-embrace Africa, mainly its north. A host of regional and international developments are giving Tehran and North African countries every reason to boost ties.
