Mugabe back from Iran visit

PRESIDENT Mugabe returned home last night from Iran where he joined other world leaders in witnessing Mr Hassan Rouhani's swearing in for a second term as president of the Middle Eastern country.

While in Iran, Mugabe also held bilateral talks with President Rouhani, in addition to interfacing with Zimbabwean students pursuing various university studies there.

Last night, he was received at Harare International Airport by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa; Minister of State for Harare Provincial Affairs Miriam Chikukwa; Defence Minister Dr Sydney Sekeramayi; Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Christopher Mushohwe; Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo; service chiefs and other senior Government officials.

In Monday's bilateral engagement, Presidents Mugabe and Rouhani pledged to strengthen economic cooperation, and paved the way for the Zimbabwe-Iran Joint Commission to try and meet this year to give impetus to existing agreements while also initiating new mutually beneficial projects.

Among areas of keen interest to the State parties are energy, pharmaceuticals, science and technology, and agriculture.

At that meeting, President Mugabe extended an invitation to President Rouhani to visit Zimbabwe to further boost ties, and Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said Government had no reason to think that invitation would be turned down.

Minister Mumbengegwi, as well as Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Mr George Charamba - along with other high-ranking Government officials - accompanied President Mugabe to Iran.

The country's chief envoy to Tehran, Ambassador Nicholas Kitikiti, and his wife, hosted a dinner for President Mugabe and his delegation at their official residence — an occasion at which the President met Zimbabwean students based in Iran.

Among the 21 undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral candidates are lecturers studying in the Middle East as part of a University of Zimbabwe staff development programme.

Other students are on scholarships provided by Iran's Cultural Centre in Harare while some have private sponsorship.

President Mugabe urged the students to conquer the frontier of new scientific and technological knowledge to develop their nation.

The ties between Zimbabwe and Iran date back to 13th century trade in ivory and gold.

Iran — variably known as Persia through history — is itself home to one of the world's oldest continuous major civilisations dating back to 7000BC; while Zimbabwe can trace its history to the arrival of Bantu-speaking people some 2000 years ago.

Relations were first interrupted by the arrival of the Portuguese on Africa's east coast soon and then aggressive colonial expansion by a host of European countries.

Zimbabwe and Iran were to reassert their identities as sovereign nations at around the same time, both of them fending off Anglo-American domination of their peoples and territories.

For Iran, the definitive moment was to come in 1979 when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini removed the American-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi autocracy in the popular Islamic Revolution.

In Zimbabwe, the quest for nationhood was to come months later when nationalist fighters pushed the racist British-backed Ian Douglas Smith colonial dictatorship to the negotiating table after more than a decade of war.

In 1979, the late Vice-President and national hero Dr Simon Muzenda was to visit Iran to express solidarity with the Islamic Revolution, and for years now the two countries have maintained diplomatic relations, with leaders from both sides visiting each other regularly.