Israel seeks to counter Iran with Africa tour
NAIROBI — Israel has embarked on a charm offensive in Africa, sending its foreign minister on a rare tour of some of the continent’s key capitals aimed notably at countering Iran’s rising influence.
Avigdor Lieberman and a large business and military delegation kicked off the tour on Wednesday with a stop in Ethiopia and flew on to Kenya on Thursday evening. The hawkish minister was to conclude the tour with trips to Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana.
Lieberman was quick to press African countries to make good use of their ties with Arab countries “to help promote moderation and reconciliation in the Middle East.”
“Indeed, within the African Union itself it is very important that the decisions and activities of African states reflect a positive and constructive approach, one that rejects one-sided decisions against Israel,” he said in Addis Ababa.
His comments were a response to comments made in Tripoli by Libyan leader and current African Union chairman Moamer Kadhafi, who claimed that Israel was “behind all of Africa’s conflicts.”
For this rare tour of the continent by its most senior diplomat, Israel chose a selection of historic allies and economic powerhouses in what observers say appeared to be a way of countering a diplomatic push by Iran.
“Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s February visit to Nairobi was very negatively received in Israel,” a Nairobi-based diplomat said. Whether with Kenya, Uganda or central Asian states, Turkey and India, Israel “always used a backdoor strategy of alliances, circumventing the Arab world surrounding it,” said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Israeli foreign ministry admitted that Iran’s efforts to forge partnerships in the region would be discussed during Lieberman’s stop in Kenya. While Ahmadinejad was in Nairobi, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on water supply, oil deal and launching a direct Kenya Airways flight between the two countries.
A staunch Western ally in the region, Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula had stressed during Ahmadinejad’s visit that its “friendship with country A is not to the exclusion of country B.”
Israel sees Iran, which it accuses of developing nuclear weapons and has repeatedly called for the Jewish state’s destruction, as the main threat to its existence. “Under Mwai Kibaki’s presidency, Kenya has adopted a very opportunistic diplomacy, with an aim to shifting its donor reliance from traditional partners towards China, India and Gulf countries,” a Western diplomat said.
Ahmadinejad had travelled to Kenya and the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros with a trade delegation of close to 100. For his part, Lieberman is accompanied by around 20 businessmen and signed a cooperation accord on water management.
“The technical support in irrigation and rain water harvesting will go a long way towards ensuring that we have sufficient water for all our needs and boost our agricultural production,” President Mawi Kibaki said after meeting with Lieberman.
Israel was notably involved in training elite forces in Kenya and neighbouring Uganda.
In Uganda, Lieberman is expected to commemorate the July 1976 dramatic intervention by Israeli special forces at Entebbe airport, where Palestinian militants had taken Israelis hostage on an Air France flight.
Uganda was once considered by former colonial power Britain and the Zionist movement of Theodor Herzl as a possible land for the Jewish people. Lieberman’s visit does not include South Africa, Israel’s top trade partner on the continent. “It is his first visit to Africa but not the last, next time he will visit other countries. There is a lot of potential that we haven’t even touched,” Keidar said. (Boris Bachorz/AFP)
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