Black turban covering Horn of Africa: This is how Iran penetrated into countries of “security fragility”

Ahmed Adel

The Horn of Africa is of the utmost importance to any country interested in consolidating its feet in the Middle East region, given the important and vital strategic location that the islands of the region possess, through which it is possible to control the movement of navigation in all of the Red Sea, and from there to the Middle East and Europe.

Iran is interested in the Horn of Africa, given the intensity of the political and military conflict between it and some regional countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the conflict with the Arab coalition in Yemen, the opposite side of the region.

Djibouti

Since 1999, Tehran has sought to consolidate its relations with Djibouti, specifically after the assumption of President Ismail Omar, and has worked since the beginning of the past decade, to establish many centers aimed at spreading Shiism, and the development of Iranian Shiite activity in the country.

Eritrea

The beginning of Iranian-Eritrean relations dates back to the period of the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, which culminated in 2008, when Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki visited Tehran, and he stated there what he called the importance of benefiting from Iranian experiences.

In 2009, Tehran launched a naval base in Eritrea at Bab al-Mandab, which it is currently using to support the Houthi militia in Yemen.

The Eritrean Assab port, which is a few kilometers away from the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, is one of the most important Iranian presence points in that region, as it installed in 2009 a large number of batteries of long-range and medium-range missiles and anti-aircraft missiles.

Somalia

In August 2011, the official start of the Iranian presence in Somalia, as former Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi went to Mogadishu, and Iran built and equipped an integrated hospital and set up a camp for two thousand million dollars in humanitarian aid for millions of dollars in famine-stricken Somalia.

In November 2012, it was the second visit to Salhi, during which the Iranian minister confirmed that his country would reopen its embassy in Mogadishu after more than two decades.

In 2012, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his country was committed to defending the Somali people, and the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations sent a message to the Secretary-General, that Ki-moon said that Iran would send two ships to patrol the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden for a period of five months to fight pirates operating in the region and to protect Iranian cargo ships.