The State Department and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have aligned with a number of analysts this week in cautioning Fox News Digital about “significant threats to U.S. national security” stemming from Iran’s activities in Africa.
Tehran is allegedly purchasing uranium from Niger, distributing drones to forces in Sudan, violating a U.N. arms embargo, and fostering the expansion of destabilizing Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism throughout the continent.
“Iran’s extensive reach of terror spans the globe, including Africa,” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, conveyed to Fox News Digital. He added, “Iran poses a threat to freedom worldwide and is a danger to U.S. national security; our partners in Africa should be wary before engaging with this perilous, authoritarian regime.”
Cronje continued, “Africa has 1.5 billion people. Approximately a third of those are Muslim and make up a quarter of all Muslims worldwide, more than the number in the Middle East. Muslims serve as dominant groups across much of North Africa and down the African east coast.”
“The Iranian Africa strategy can be thought of as having three components,” Cronje stated. “The first is the provision of training and material support to extremist groups in Africa to aid in the export of terror globally, and to target Christians and pro-Western communities on the continent, whilst creating a high-threat environment for Western investors.
“To that end the global terror threat index scores for several African countries have come to exceed those of traditional Middle Eastern terror staples. Africa’s Christians face increasing volumes of horrific attacks, including Christian church burnings and beheadings, and it has become common for Africa to account for the bulk of global terror-related deaths annually.
In this June 6, 2018, frame grab from Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, three versions of domestically built centrifuges are shown in a live TV program from Natanz, an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, in Iran.
“The second is to identify both Shia and Sunni communities that can be radicalized against the West as well as against Iranian opponents in the Arab world. Iran has employed Al-Mustafa academic and cultural centers in over 30 African countries to train clerics and religious leaders.
“A third pillar of the strategy is that Iran has deepened diplomatic and economic cooperation ties with scores of African governments and business organizations to win trade and investment deals that help it evade global sanctions, as well as securing the diplomatic support of African governments on global fora such as the U.N., for measures ranging from its nuclear weapons program to its investment in proxy forces that threaten Israel.
“For example,” Cronje concluded, “just a few months ago, over 700 delegates from nearly 40 African countries attended an investment conference in Tehran.”
Summing up, the FDD’s Taleblu said “the threat the Islamic Republic poses on the African continent is both significant and diverse. From seeking to export its revolution through religious indoctrination via state-linked religious seminaries, to drone sales, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism has not missed this opportunity to cause chaos while flying below the radar of the West.”
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