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Gibson Nyikadzino-Zimpapers Politics Hub
IN his opening remarks at the third Iran-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference in Tehran, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian revealed his country’s preparedness to share its achievements across various fields with African nations. The conference attracted representatives from 51 countries, with the objective of exploring collaboration opportunities in trade, industry, agriculture and health.
There is a reason why today Iran-Africa cooperation is a sine qua non. The Persian country is morphing into a linchpin of the new world order, of both the political and economic characterisations that Africa can take advantage of.
As in ancient times when Persia was a nexus of transport and trade in the Silk Road, it was a bridge between east and west. Today, Iran (Persia) is also offering a major pillar, that is over 7,000 kilometres of passage that connects the international North-South transport corridor. This expansive project is becoming an alternative complement to the Suez Canal in global changes to transport and logistics routes.
This means Iran is a centrepiece to redrawing the world trade map by having access to the Indian Ocean, rail, road, linking to the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Russia, to Western Europe and Africa. This is a new voyage Iran is embarking on.
For Iran and Africa, already, this strategic alliance and cooperation between the two parties will pressure the United States, which for years has sought to isolate Iran through sanctions. Yet, Iran is projecting its geopolitical importance, which includes linking Africa to Russia and China, both architects of the changing global order.
Iran is also moving away from being a mere regional force. Its geographical positioning gives it leverage to gain political and economic rewards and to neutralise the political isolation strategy directed at it by forming alliances.
On the other hand, Africa requires technology, skills, access to markets and building new power alliances that shift extractive and exploitative power bases of the West and move towards a just order. This means more development, economic agreements, technology transfers, building new infrastructure, education and cultural exchange programs, and trade, among others.
New era for Zimbabwe
Since 2003, Zimbabwe’s Look East Policy, the country has always been looking for alternatives following the imposition of illegal sanctions by the West. The unjustified sanctions hurt because Zimbabwe’s economy relied more on Western trade. But the rise of China, the re-emergence of Russia, and the sprouting of Iran’s influence are alternatives that Zimbabwe not only shares political histories with, but also values and norms.
Zimbabwe and modern Iran are countries born out of revolutions and not movements. A movement is only a call that mobilises people towards a certain degree of change, yet a revolution is a call that puts at the forefront a fundamental restructuring of society by overthrowing an old establishment. Both Zimbabwe and Iran experienced these revolutions.
Such experiences have built solidarity between the two, which serves as an indication of their resistance to unilateral domination of the international system, which in turn hurts their sovereign right to existence.
While political relations are strong, economic cooperation should be increased. Iran offers Zimbabwe the requisite base of production, manufacturing, knowledge transfer and technology to develop the health sector. The Persian country has one of the best technologies in health, cancer treatment, agriculture and even military industrial capacity.
Economically, Iran also has strong technology in oil and gas exploration, a field that Zimbabwe wants to be counted among the emerging competent states in Africa.
Conduit of de-dollarisation
In January, Iran and Russia ratified a 20-year strategic energy alliance. This strategic alliance is meant to make Iran a hub with the most reliable, safest, and most economical transit or swap route for crude oil, natural gas, and petrochemical products. These products, moving to countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Indian subcontinent, Turkey and Iraq, will not be traded in US dollars. This also strengthens the Russia-Iran-India trade triangle, yet something that makes the US outraged with Iran for its advocacy as a conduit of de-dollarisation.
Iran is placing its head on the guillotine or block for a world where nations can trade using their currencies of choice, against a US that is recasting its script of disinformation that the former is building nuclear weapons.
The same happened with Saddam Hussein, whom the US said had chemical weapons, that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was a madman, and that Bashar al-Assad gassed his people.
What the US did not say was that Saddam Hussein was dumping the dollar; that Col Gaddafi dreamt of a gold-backed Pan-African currency, and that Syria’s Assad switched to budgeting in Euros from the US dollar.
The US knows that if you fracture Iran, you fracture the Global South for interconnectivity, where Africa also has a global stake. However, for African countries that are also yearning for de-dollarisation, Iran offers itself as a confluence of reliability and courage that African nations need more even when placing the China-Russia matrix in the equation.
Due to the decline of the West, other powers have emerged as torchbearers and will remain prominent because of initiatives like the Iran-Africa cooperation and the BRICS+ alliance. The BRICS+ alliance of nations is a catalyst for global economic expansion, and in the near future, the bloc will account for the majority of the global GDP growth.
Changing the relationship
Since the beginning of the 20th and 21st centuries, African countries have endured a relationship of exploitation from and by the West. Through colonialism and neo-colonialism, Africa’s historical dependence on the West has often created a dependence that has disadvantaged the continent.
With partnership agreements coming through the Iran-Africa alliance, it presents an ideal time and moment for Africa to be part of a united force that overturns the old relationship structures and creates new ones that are friendly, cooperative and based on mutual respect, which favours the Global South.
With such strategic partnerships, this gives birth to a perfect marriage of geopolitical imperative and economic necessity; hence this is not only about Iran, but Africa in general and Zimbabwe, too. It is to the benefit of the Global South.
The Global South is coming up as a constructive force that, amid great tribulations is ready to support economic globalisation, maintenance of international peace, and implementation of sustainable development among states. It is a fact that by cooperating at a higher level, all Global South countries are naturally bound to stand for world justice, economic integrity and solidarity.
Online Reporter