Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani arrived in Zimbabwe on an official visit this week to a complete boycott of the arrival ceremony at Harare’s international airport by Zimbabwe’s western diplomatic community.
Rafsanjani was greeted by a 21-gun salute, inspected a military parade and walked, smiling, with President Robert Mugabe past a mass of women supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party. Rafsanjani and his 300 ministers and aides were cheered by a crowd of about 500 Muslims.
The official line-up at the airport, usually dominated by envoys from the west, was composed exclusively of Arab diplomats, a scattering of Africans, and an Asian representative.
This was seen as a deliberate snub of Iran following allegations by the United States that Tehran backed Muslim terrorist organisations.
Harare was Rafsanjani’s fifth stop on a six-nation tour of Africa over 12 days that ends in South Africa.
The trip has been characterised officially as boosting trade and diplomatic relations in Africa, where Islam is the continent’s fastest-growing religion.
Rafsanjani’s stopovers in Sudan, which, like Iran is accused by Washington of sponsoring terrorism, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania saw the signing of trade agreements dealing mostly in oil and petroleum products, and religious exchanges.
But the trip is also seen as a diplomatic offensive by Tehran to demonstrate its influence among third- world countries to Washington.
Last month US President Bill Clinton signed a law which imposes heavy penalties on countries that invest more than US40-million a year in Iran’s or Libya’s oil and natural-gas sectors.
The South African segment of Rafsanjani’s visit was sharply criticised by Clinton’s administration, anxious over Tehran’s increasingly friendly ties with Pretoria. — Sapa