PrintApril 26, 2010
Iran strikes uranium deal with Zimbabwe
Last week in response to the tax day Tea Parties that peacefully swept the nation, Mr. Obama smirked, chuckled and said that we should thank him for lowering our taxes. The future former president's toxic domestic agenda has succeeded in bringing millions of freedom loving Americans together in a way that none of us could have imagined.
This past weekend Mr. Obama's disastrous foreign agenda brought two implacable tyrants together in a frightful marriage of convenience. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joined Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe in Bulawayo for the opening of Zimbabwe's annual trade exposition. The UK Daily Mail reported.
Ahmadinejad is the first leader from outside the Africa continent to open the exposition since independence from British colonial era rule in 1980.
In Zimbabwe's ailing economy-along with white-owned and foreign companies being forced under a new law to hand over 51 per cent control to black Zimbabweans-many traditional Western exhibitors and local industries have stayed away from the annual trade fair, once a showcase of regional goods and products.
Among the official announcements issued by the Zimbabwe Iran Joint Commission were agreements for agricultural co-operation, a $2 million grant for health services, a proposal for an assembly plant in Zimbabwe to produce tractors and the creation of an investment company to assist in the development of energy, water management, financial and social services and mining.
Zimbabwe's economy went into free fall after disruptions caused by the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms that began in 2000.
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Mugabe insists Western sanctions caused the economic collapse. Western leaders say Mugabe's policies, including his trampling of democracy, brought ruin.
The new found friendship between Iran and Zimbabwe which was celebrated amid great fanfare at the trade exposition isn't really about joint co-operation in healthcare, energy, water or any other of the publicly stated objectives. The UK Telegraph tells us that.
Iran has struck a secret deal with Zimbabwe to mine its untapped uranium reserves in a move to secure raw material for its steadily expanding nuclear programme.
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In return for supplying oil, which Zimbabwe desperately needs to keep its faltering economy moving, Iran has been promised access to potentially huge deposits or uranium ore-which can be converted into the basic fuel for nuclear power or enriched to make a nuclear bomb.
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"Iran secured the exclusive uranium rights last month when minister of state for Presidential affairs, Didymus Mutasa visited Tehran," said a Zimbabwean government source. "That is when the formal signing of the deal was made, away from the glare of the media."
This agreement between the two anti-western regimes is in violation of the current UN sanctions against Iran which have been in place since December 2006, not that President Mugabe is likely to be deterred by the United Nations. An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) source said "If Zimbabwe and Iran were to announce a deal, then I am sure it is something that the IAEA would be very interested in." Lucky thing for Ahmadinejad and Mugabe that no official announcement has been made.
How will Mr. Obama respond to this new threat to international peace and our national security? Maybe he'll just laugh it off and say that Ahmadinejad and Mugabe ought to thank him for creating the sort of fertile global environment which encourages such co-operation.
Phil Boehmke
