Maravi

(HERALD) Zimbabwe and Iran, sturdy fronts against US hegemony

Zimbabwe and Iran, sturdy fronts against US hegemony
By Tichaona Zindoga

FOLLOWING the arrival of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Zimbabwe on Thursday, a conservative American journal The Right Perspective was explicit in its opposition to the two leaders.

It said: "Call it a meeting of the evil minds: anti-white, Marxist, Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe has welcomed anti-Israeli, socialist, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into his country with open arms and a 21-gun salute."

It noted that President Ahmadinejad was the first non-African leader to open the event "since Rhodesia was taken over by Communists in 1980" adding that "many Western nations have steered clear of the trade fair since Mugabe began his racist eviction of white farmers from their homeland farms 10 years ago."

It was the standard Western assessment of the visit with one paper calling it a "meeting of tyrants", who are "long on anti-Western rhetoric" being "united by their politics".

President Ahmadinejad, in a historic visit to Zimbabwe officially opened the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo on Friday after touring Zimbabwe/Iran joint ventures in Harare and Chitungwiza the previous day.

Western displeasure with Zimbabwe/Iran association is understandable in the following context:

Zimbabwe and Iran share common revolutionary backgrounds, which are headlined by their resistance to the Western imperialist onslaught.

Recent years have especially brought this similarity. Zimbabwe, which won Independence from Britain via a heroic armed struggle in 1980, is to the present day fighting the same, albeit under changed circumstances.

During the past decade the West, led by the US and Britain, has been hounding Zimbabwe for its decisive and hugely popular economic indigenisation efforts through a raft of sanctions and bullying and isolationism.

On the other hand, since defeating a Western puppet regime in the historic 1979 Revolution, Iran has been subject to undue interference from the West highlighted in the 1980-88 war with chemical weapons-using Iraq, to the current opposition to its peaceful nuclear programme.

In both resource-rich countries, the West has been trying to effect illegal regime change, through funding opposition movements. Zimbabweans and Iranians have stood firm, though, albeit at a price. The West has sought to isolate the two countries on the basis of alleged bad human rights records.

In a word, conservative Western opinion the coming of President Ahmadinejad not only simply reiterated its hate for the individual countries.

It also exposed indignation at the coming together of the two countries, which can only culminate in the emasculation of efforts to strangulate them through isolation and sanctions.

However, if this is to be expected as a historical continuum of the evil Western domineering, the reaction by some Zimbabweans parading as MDC-T party was at best arsinine and unfortunate and tragic and evil at worst.

On Thursday, MDC-T boycotted the Iranian leader’s welcome, with two ministers only turning up at State House to sign some bilateral agreements.

They also avoided the official opening of ZITF by the visiting head. MDC-T said in a statement quoted in the media that "as a party we feel a country is defined by its friends".

"We want to place it on record that judging by his record, Ahmadinejad is not coming as a friend of Zimbabwe, but as an ally of those who unilaterally invited him," read the statement.

The party opined that "hobnobbing with dubious political characters confirms stereotypes that we are a banana republic".

The quintessence of the action of MDC-T lies in its blind loyalty to the West.

This is so as the US and Britain are self-professed friends, funders and allies of the party.

The tragedy lies in that MDC-T, which represents a sizeable number of people being in the inclusive Government, is pawning Zimbabwe’s interests over the orientation of its allies.

In this case, President Ahmadinejad’s "dubiousness", from which MDC-T sought to distance itself, stems from Western definition of him as such.

The statement that "(President) Ahmadinejad is not coming as a friend of Zimbabwe, but as an ally of those who unilaterally invited him," shows MDC-T’s warped side.

At a time when the very friends of MDC-T, the US and the European Union have shunned and imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe which are designed to make the economy scream, Iran has come to Zimbabwe’s side.

Although not endowed with American megabucks, Iran has been supporting Zimbabwe through the signing of various Memoranda of Understanding and bilateral agreements.

These are in the areas of tourism, air service, science and technology, finance, education, diplomatic issues and youth affairs.

Iranian banks and financial institutions are set to provide credit facilities and financing for Zimbabwe projects.

Iran also provided the largest number of foreign companies exhibiting at ZITF.

On the other hand, US/EU relations with Zimbabwe have been the very opposite of Iranian help, even with the makeover of the so-called humanitarian aid.

Sanctions imposed by the axis bar private and public investment in Zimbabwe.

The US’s anti-Zimbabwe sanctions law, Zdera, specifically binds American top executives at multilateral institutions to veto any cancellation of Zimbabwe’s debts and any extension of lines of credit. The US, which discourages tours to Zimbabwe, also punishes people and businesses that do business in Zimbabwe.

Western sanctions, which are subject to renewal and updates, blacklist some Zimbabwean companies and business people.

The idea of the measure is to deny business the opportunity to contribute significantly to the economy.

A vibrant Zimbabwean economy defeats the West’s drive to ruin the economy and turn people against Zanu-PF, the brains behind indigenisation and land reform, which so upsets the West.

For the record, MDC-T unilaterally invited Western sanctions on Zimbabwe.

The West has refused to support the inclusive Government, even though it has the support of the majority of Zimbabweans.

In the light of the foregoing, President Ahmadinejad came as a friend of Zimbabwe. While the MDC-T hobnobs with enemies of the country, who are bent on reversing the just cause of Zimbabwean majority, Iran also provides moral support to this besieged people.

"We believe in common principles," President Ahmadinejad said in Bulawayo, "All nations are respected and beloved by their creator God the Merciful, the Compassionate," he said having noted that some oppressive and arrogant countries wanted to deprive people of their resources, rights, peace and prosperity.

He observed that the West, which he described as putting "Satanic pressures" on Zimbabwe, wanted to perpetuate injustice and impoverishment.

It then follows that MDC-T’s boycott of Iran is an act of evil, not far removed from inviting hurtful sanctions and hobnobbing with evil oppressors.

The decision was not inspired by any form of logic other than loyalty to Western evil machinations on Iran. (Iran has not wronged the West, or funded genocide in America, Britain, France, Germany, etc, like the latter did during the Iran/Iraq war)

To the ordinary being, the MDC-T boycott is not only an insult to common civility but also an expression of disturbing naivete.

Labels: IRAN, MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 8:34 PM