West does not reflect realities of Iran: senior Zimbabwean journalist

TEHRAN, Oct. 16 (MNA) – Zimbabwe’s New ZIANA news agency editor-in-chief assessed the level of ties between Zimbabwe and Iran as satisfactory and said cooperation between the two countries can lessen the effects of sanctions on the two countries. Rangarirai Shoko said issues such as Iran’s nuclear program, human rights, or bad governance are all pretexts and the real purpose behind such sanctions is to find control over the natural resources of the two countries of Iran and Zimbabwe. Shoko added Iran has abundant oil and gas reserves, which were previously controlled by the West, and Zimbabwe also has the largest diamond and plutonium reserves. He also said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Robert Mugabe are good friends at the international level and have established good cooperation. The chief of the official Zimbabwean news agency added Iranian companies are active in his country and “now I have visited the Mehr News Agency” to establish media cooperation with Iran. He said President Mugabe, who participated in the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran in late August, expressed support for Iran’s nuclear program. On media activities in his country, Shoko said, “Media in our country are free.” The senior journalist said there are two groups of media in Zimbabwe: Private media which are mostly supported by Western countries and they are critical of the president, and the other group is state-owned media which “I should sincerely say the government does not interfere in their daily work and they are free.” He also said he expects the media outlets in Iran and Zimbabwe to present a realistic picture of the situation in the two countries to each other and it is possible with technological advances. He said Zimbabweans receive news about Iran from media outlets such as the BBC which usually do not reflect realties in Iran.