MONDAY, 5.00PM:
IRAN’S foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi says his visit to South Africa (see below) is chiefly to encourage trade and sign a treaty to abolish double taxation and protect investments.
South African foreign minister Alfred Nzo says the talks, on Monday and Tuesday, will look at ways to narrow the trade gap by encouraging South African businesses to “become a little more pro-active and engaged with their counterparts on that side, in looking for opportunities.” There will also be talks about invovling the entire SADC region in trade with Iran and her economic allies, which include Turkey and Pakistan.
Iran has dismissed South African plans to offer oil storage facilities at Saldanha Bay in the Cape, saying his country has plenty of shipping capacity and does not need a half-way house oil store. But Kharrazi did say that he would discuss the option with energy minister Pennuel Maduna on Wednesday.
MONDAY, 9.00AM:
Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi arrived in South Africa on Sunday for renewed “bilaterial economic and political talks”. The state visit by the foreign minister of a country considered a major thorn in the side of the American government comes just days after President Nelson Mandela’s highly-publicised flouting of US objections to a second visit to Libya’s Muammar Gadaffi.
It is, however, oil rather than politics that is likely to dominate the SA-Iranian talks agenda, according to observers.
South Africa is increasingly buying crude from markets other than Iran, its main supplier. Iranian crude exports to this country fell last year to 68,2-million barrels from the 1995 level of 80,7-million.
Iranian interest in an abortive 1995 deal to store 15 million barrels of crude oil at Saldanha Bay is also likely to be under discussion. The deal was frozen pending an envrionmental impact study.