Camelia Entekhabifard
IF you were to ask the man in the street in Iran whether he knew where Gambia or Senegal was, he'd shrug his shoulders. And when national TV shows the leader of a small African nation being welcomed or talking about a very important business deal with Iran, most Iranians just laugh.
However, while Iran's relationship with the big powers and the Western are becoming ever rockier, it's getting on far better with West African countries. Two weeks ago, the semi-official Iranian news agency, Fars,
reported that the ties between Iran and Gambia have improved, with the two countries agreeing to hold talks on promoting shipping and port services.
Fars said: "The two countries are studying ways to develop shipping and technical cooperation, shipbuilding, opening new ports and building sea structures."
Gholam Reza Sasani, an Iranian Port and Maritime Organisation official, told to Iranian News Agency (IRNA) that private Iranian shipping owners were enthusiastic about investing and taking part in construction, operation, shipbuilding and repair work in
Gambia.
Also last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki said that ties between Iran and Senegal were growing rapidly. The ties Mottaki was talking about involve the one-way flow of Iranian capital to Dakar,
thanks to the skyrocketing price of oil.
The joint project between Iran and Senegal includes the auto industry, selling buses and agricultural cooperation, as well as the construction of an oil refinery. But, the Iranian people and the international community are well aware of the real reason behind the passionate friendship between Iran and these West African countries.
The recent tightening of the European Union’s sanctions on Iranian banks, the threat of freezing Bank Melli's (Iran’s biggest bank) assets in Europe and a new wave of economic crises have all assailed Iran’s weak economy.
If Iran fails to cooperate with 5+1 over its nuclear programme within a fortnight, then apparently it's going to suffer harsher sanctions. Escaping from the UN sanctions is one of the reasons behind this relationship
with West African nations.
Capital could be diverted into non-aligned nations such as Senegal and Gambia to avoid some of the effects of the forthcoming sanctions and the potential freezing of Iranian assets in the foreign banks.
The other possibility is to increase the Iranian presence in West Africa in Sunni nations like Gambia and Senegal, in order to compete with Saudi Arabia and other major Sunni Arab nations.
The shipping and port co-operation could facilitate the activities of the Revolutionary Guards in West Africa, a part of the world recovering from years of civil war, strife and food shortages and now a new platform for opportunistic countries that are not really looking to make life easier for them.
With only a few days left to the 5+1 deadline, Iran can’t play with time or make up a new story. Iran has two weeks starting from July 19, to say yes or no to the offer and get back to the negotiating table or face a
fourth round of UN sanctions. It is unclear how Iran could survive a new round of sanctions, which could be imposed on its oil and gas.
Iran, the second biggest oil producer in OPEC, has to import 60 per cent of oil it needs from abroad. If new sanction targeted imported gasoline, the nation could be paralysed within a couple of months. Is that what the Iranian regime really wants?
The Iranian people would prefer to switch on the TV and discover that ties with the regional and world countries have improved, rather than to hear every day the propaganda about being under attack from imperialism.
Having full diplomatic relations with the US and Egypt, two old friends, means more to the Iranians than hearing about their wealth and resources flowing to unknown people and nations for unknown reasons, while they
themselves become more and more isolated every day.
* Published in THE EGYPTIAN GAZETTE on August 1, 2008. Entekhabifard is a journalist and the author of “Camelia: Save Yourself by Telling the Truth”. She is a specialist in Afghan and Iranian affairs. |
