SA, Middle East cement relations
Richard Mantu
24 August 2004
South Africa will consolidate political and economic relations with three Middle East countries and a north African country when Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad visits Iran, Syria, Jordan and Egypt this month.
The deputy minister's visit starts on Tuesday and ends on 2 September.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said issues to be discussed during Pahad's visit included the consolidation of political and economic relations between each of the countries and South Africa.
Support for Nepad as the socio-economic programme for the African continent, the Middle East Peace Process, and developments in Iraq following the handover of sovereignty to the people of Iraq, would also be on the agenda.
Mamoepa added that discussions would also focus on the three major challenges outlined by President Thabo Mbeki earlier this week at the opening of the Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial meeting in Durban - poverty and
underdevelopment, peace, security and terrorism, and the review of the global exercise of power.
Pahad leaves for Iran on Tuesday, where he will meet Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi, the deputy minister responsible for Afro-Arab Affairs, Seyed Mohammed Sadr, and Hassan Rowhani, secretary-general of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council.
Pretoria and Tehran enjoy good political and economic relations through a joint binational commission that has met annually since 1996, concentrating on co-operation in the economic, agricultural, mining, scientific, arts, cultural, sport and educational fields.
The 8th Iran-South Africa session of the commission is scheduled for Tehran on 29-30 November.
Iran and South Africa have seen a gradual increase in trade, with SA's exports to Iran (mostly sugar) valued at R234-million in 2002 while South Africa's imports (mainly oil) from Iran reached R9-billion in the same year.
After four days in Iran, Pahad will
visit Syria, followed by Jordan. Pahad's last stop will take see him in Egypt, where he will meet the secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and Foreign Minister Ahmed El Chait.
South Africa and Egypt cooperate on various multilateral forums, especially in the World Trade Organisation, and the latter is South Africa's third-largest trading partner in North Africa after Algeria and Morocco.
"Work towards the removal of statutory and non-statutory barriers to trade between Egypt and South Africa and closer co-operation in the fields of agriculture and health are under way", Mamoepa said.
"The Egyptians have also proposed a Free Trade Agreement between Egypt and the Southern African Customs Union, which includes South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho."
Source: BuaNews
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