Iran signs agreements with Zimbabwe as Raisi ends Africa tour

Harare — Zimbabwe and Iran signed 12 memorandums of understanding on Thursday to strengthen bilateral ties, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi wrapped up his three-nation African tour.

Raisi, who visited Kenya and Uganda earlier in the week, met with Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare.

Mnangagwa greeted Raisi as “my brother” on the tarmac after his plane landed in Harare on Thursday.

The 12 MOUs include plans to create a tractor manufacturing plant in Zimbabwe with an Iranian company and a local partner. The two countries also signed co-operation agreements for energy, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications as well as research, science and technology projects.

“We welcome investments in several sectors of our economy,” Mnangagwa told reporters after the signing ceremony. He did not say how much investment Zimbabwe was expecting from Iran.

“When we went to war, Iran was our friend,” said Mnangagwa, referring to Zimbabwe’s fight for independence, which it attained in 1980.

“Our co-operation with Zimbabwe and our co-operation with the African continent, which is a continent full of potential, could help us for mutual advances,” Raisi said in translated comments in Zimbabwe.

Making reference to US sanctions imposed on Iran and Zimbabwe, Raisi said his country would work hard to forge closer economic ties.

Iran’s trade with Africa will increase to more than $2bn this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.

Raisi’s African visit, the first by an Iranian leader since 2013, follows a visit in June to three Latin American countries also saddled with US sanctions. 

Reuters