Iranian President Raisi begins Africa trip with visit to Kenya

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Iranian President Raisi begins Africa trip with visit to Kenya

9:46 CAT | 12 Jul 2023

Photo: Twitter / @ForeignOfficeKE

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi received a red carpet welcome from Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he began a three-country tour of Africa that Tehran has touted as a “new beginning” in relations with the continent.

State Visit by President of Iran, Dr. Ebrahim Raisi, State House, Nairobi. https://t.co/EvJu01szcN

— William Samoei Ruto, PhD (@WilliamsRuto) July 12, 2023

Raisi’s trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling U.S. sanctions.

Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with U.S. sanctions.

Iran’s trade with African countries will increase to more than $2 billion this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.

Raisi was welcomed by an honour guard at Kenya’s presidential palace before joining Ruto for a meeting, video posted on social media by Kenya’s presidency showed.

His trip to Kenya, East Africa’s economic powerhouse, will provide the two countries an “opportunity to review and re-energise their bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries,” Kenya’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe.

The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

CS @DrAlfredMutua this morning at JKIA received H.E. President Ebrahim Raisi of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who arrived in the country for a State Visit.
During the State Visit, President Raisi will hold High Level consultations with his host H.E President @WilliamsRuto … 1/2 pic.twitter.com/tqOCXs9f7M

— Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Kenya (@ForeignOfficeKE) July 12, 2023