From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Thu Feb 04 2010 - 10:59:59 EST
http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15453225
Iran and Israel in Africa
A search for allies in a hostile world Iran’s proclaimed ambitions in Africa
are particularly worrying for Israel, which once had a lot of friends on the
continent and wants to keep the few that remain
Feb 4th 2010 | DAKAR AND NAIROBI | From *The Economist* print edition
ARRIVING at the airport in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, you have a fair chance
that the newish-looking taxi taking you into town will not be the usual
French or Japanese model, but Iranian. And it will not have been imported,
as most cars in Africa are, but assembled in nearby Thiès. From here, the
first few hundred taxis have just come off the production line at an
Iranian-built Khodro plant. They are tangible symbols of a new power in
sub-Saharan Africa that has, for some, begun to cause ripples of concern.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s controversial president, is in the vanguard of
Iran’s push. Two years ago in New York he said he saw “no limits to the
expansion of [Iran’s] ties with African countries”. Last year Iran’s
diplomats, generals and president criss-crossed the continent, signing a
bewildering array of commercial, diplomatic and defence deals. By one tally,
Iran conducted 20 ministerial or grander visits to Africa last year,
reminiscent of the trade-and-aid whirlwind the Chinese brought to Africa in
the mid-2000s.
The reason is not hard to fathom. Iran wants diplomatic support for its
nuclear programme in parts of the world where governments are still
biddable. In Latin America Iran’s president has already exploited
anti-American sentiment in countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua and
Venezuela. In Africa, by contrast, where most countries have strong ties to
the West, Iran has concentrated on strengthening Muslim allegiances with
offers of oil and aid.
Take Senegal, a 95%-Muslim country. Though poor and quite small in
population, it carries diplomatic weight in Francophone Africa and influence
at the UN, where quite a few African governments look to it for a lead on
some big votes. So Iran has been bombarding it with goodwill. As well as the
Khodro car factory, the Iranians have promised to build tractors, an oil
refinery and a chemical plant, as well as to provide a lot of cheap oil.
Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade has gratefully accepted this bounty, in
return paying four official visits to Iran. In November he hosted Mr
Ahmadinejad in Senegal, publicly assuring him that he endorsed Iran’s right
to nuclear power—and accepted that this was for peaceful purposes only. A
happy Iranian president also visited neighbouring Gambia, a smaller country
with a nasty authoritarian regime—and a UN vote. Also in west Africa, Iran
has been pushing into Mauritania and has tightened its links with Nigeria.
In east Africa Iran has helped turn Sudan, another mainly Muslim country,
into—by some counts—Africa’s third-biggest arms maker; in 2008 the two
signed a military co-operation accord.
Iran has also been cultivating some less likely allies in the region. Last
year Mr Ahmadinejad visited mainly Christian Kenya, being joyously welcomed
in the port of Mombasa, on the Muslim-inhabited coast. He struck a deal to
export 4m tonnes of crude oil to Kenya a year, to open direct flights
between Tehran and Nairobi, the two capitals, and to give scholarships for
study in Iran. Wherever Iran has embassies it also sets up cultural centres.
Iran has been trying to use its oil to get into Uganda too. On a recent
visit to Iran, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, tantalised his hosts by
hinting that they might consider building a refinery and pipeline for
Uganda’s recently discovered oil.
Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, has been courted too, along with
sub-Saharan Africa’s diplomatic and economic giant, South Africa, whose
ruling African National Congress has long shared Iran’s support for the
Palestinians against Israel. Iran has for many years supplied South Africa
with a lot of oil. But economic ties have tightened. Private South African
companies are investing heavily in Iran. For instance, MTN, a mobile-phone
company invested $1.5 billion-plus in Iran in 2007-08 to provide coverage
for more than 40% of Iranians. In return, South Africa has been one of
Iran’s doughtiest supporters at the UN, abstaining on a resolution to
condemn Iran’s human-rights violations and arguing against further embargoes
and sanctions over Iran’s nuclear plans.
Yet the amount of aid that Iran gives Africa is still small compared with
the sums Americans and Europeans give, let alone China. It is doubtful that
countries such as Senegal would jeopardise aid links with the West by
becoming too cosy with Iran. And sometimes there is more Iranian talk than
action. Kenya’s direct flights to Tehran have yet to happen. Khodro is
producing only half the number of taxis promised. It may be hard for Shia
Iran to influence Africa’s predominantly Sunni Muslims.
Can the Jewish state recover ground?
All the same, Israel is rattled. Its diplomatic links are fewer and frailer
than before—and Iran is doing its best to shred even these. Last year
Mauritania, one of the few Arab League countries to have diplomatic
relations with Israel, told it to close its embassy. After Iran’s foreign
minister visited the country, Iran said it would take over a hospital that
Israel had been building in the capital, Nouakchott, adding that it would
provide more doctors and equipment than Israel had promised. In Senegal the
Israelis had offered to help the notable Sufi Muslim town of Touba to build
a water and sewage system. But negotiations were abruptly broken off at an
advanced stage, after Iran promised to carry out the same work—and give a
bigger donation to the town as well as the water pumps.
Lebanon’s rich and influential diaspora also comes into the game. In Congo,
Guinea and Senegal, among other countries, the Shia Lebanese
party-cum-militia, Hizbullah, which Iran helps sponsor, collects a lot cash
from its co-religionists, while spreading the Iranian word.
As a result of Iran’s African activity, Israel is trying to push back into
the continent, where it had strong ties in the 1950 and 1960s. But many
countries cut them after the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, and again
when the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) began in the late 1980s. In
September Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, made Israel’s first
high-level mission to Africa for decades, visiting Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya,
Nigeria and Uganda. Countering Iran’s influence was plainly one reason
behind the trip.
Many African governments still crave Israeli expertise for projects such as
irrigation, but they are also after military and intelligence technology.
Security-minded Ethiopia, confronting Islamist militias backed by nearby
rebels in Somalia, has become Israel’s closest continental ally and a big
buyer of defence equipment. Kenya, also worried about Islamist fighters
operating in next-door Somalia, has long been receptive to Israel’s
blandishments. In west Africa, Nigeria may have spent as much as $500m on
Israeli arms, including drones, in the past few years.
Mr Lieberman may tour Africa again this year. Israel is particularly worried
by Iran’s eagerness to warm relations with Sudan and Eritrea, a strategic
spot on the Red Sea that could threaten Israeli shipping. Eritrea also arms
the fervently anti-Israeli Somali jihadists. Sudan may already serve as a
conduit for Iranian weapons to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that
Iran backs, and to Hizbullah. A year ago Israeli aircraft destroyed a convoy
in eastern Sudan that it said was carrying Iranian arms to Hamas in the Gaza
Strip.
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