Iran and Zimbabwe, Sitting in a Tree

by Michael Jones · 2010-04-23 13:08:00 UTC
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Mahmoud AhmadinejadWith friends like Robert Mugabe, who needs enemies? Or maybe it's with friends like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who needs enemies?

Ah, the conundrum whenever two of the world's most prolific violators of human rights get together for dinner.

The Iranian president with a penchant for denying the Holocaust and pursuing nuclear weapons technology arrived in Zimbabwe for a two day meeting, bringing news that Iran would be investing in the country by opening a tractor factory and a textile plant. For his part, Robert Mugabe used the meeting to unite his Captain Planet ring to that of Ahmadinejad's, and call for mass resistance to the West.

"Because of the principled positions we have taken at both the domestic and international levels, Zimbabwe and Iran have been unjustly vilified and punished by Western countries," Mugabe said.

By shared principled positions, it's not clear if Mugabe was referring to the fact that both Zimbabwe and Iran have been accused of utilizing child soldiers, or the fact that both countries have a mutual love of cracking down on freedom of the press, or that both countries like their elections with a healthy dose of violence and repression.

For their part, Zimbabwe's lead opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), blasted the visit by Ahmadinejad as divisive, and not representative of people seeking peace in both Zimbabwe and Iran.

"Inviting Ahmadinejad to an investment forum in Zimbabwe is like inviting a mosquito to cure malaria," said Nelson Chamisas, a spokesperson for the MDC, in what might be one of the best geopolitical global health metaphors ever used. "It's an insult to peace-loving people in both Iran and Zimbabwe."

Ah, but at least the tractors will be happy.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jones Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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