Like any self-respecting high-level visit, the President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, closed his visit to the Island with a hug to General Raúl Castro. The meeting barely leaked a few brief images in which the former Cuban president spoke, continuing to shake hands and interpret through, with a silent ayatollah. Later, and already accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, and his counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, they chatted sitting around a table.
According to the official press, Castro thanked “the support of the Government of Iran in Cuba’s fight against the unfair economic, commercial and financial blockade (…) while stressing that both nations have known how to defend their independence and sovereignty.”
It is not known, however, what the other party transmitted, but the international press He has highlighted the main difference that Raisi’s presence in Cuba has marked compared to what he made in his previous Latin American stops in Venezuela and Nicaragua. He went to the island to sign.
The international press has highlighted the main difference that Raisi’s presence in Cuba has made compared to the one he made in his previous Latin American stops in Venezuela and Nicaragua
Although the Iranian signed up to 25 agreements with the Maduro government in Caracas, the statements against the US marked the visit. The same thing happened in Managua, where there weren’t even memoranda, pacts or papers to look at, just a declaration of intent to “increase and deepen relations in all areas.”
The morning Raisi dedicated it to Miguel Díaz-Canel, with whom he was at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Cigb). They were accompanied by the Cuban Foreign Minister and the Minister of Public Health, José Angel Portal Miranda, as well as the Iranian delegation.
The health alliance between the two countries is not new, marking one of its milestones with the joint development of the Soberna 2 vaccine, which was carried out in Tehran by the Pasteur Institute and in Cuba by the Finlay Vaccine Institute, and whose approval by the World Organization of Health is no longer expected. Currently, both centers are cooperating for a new immune system against pneumococcus.
Vicente Vérez Bencomo, director of the Finlay Institute, referred to the agreement between the two countries with which the “transfer of Cuban vaccine technology against SARS-COV-2” was achieved and assured that the signing was “for the brotherhood” of both towns.
In the most ideological part, Díaz-Canel claimed the visit as a sign of “unity among those who have been condemned for wanting to build societies different from those that the Yankee paradigm wants to impose, and for this reason we have been subjected to blockades, unjust sanctions , inhuman, unjustified. That is a message that we are united, that we do not renounce our convictions, and that together we are going to take advantage of the potential we have to complement each other and become stronger in confronting the empire.”
The Cuban leader continued his harangue, pitying Iran because “sanctions and economic measures have been increased” and expressed his solidarity for understanding that both countries “receive imperial cruelty”, which in the case of the island is also focused on in a “huge media campaign to smear the Revolution” and the application of a “cultural colonization strategy directed primarily at youth.”
For this reason, he continued, “it is very stimulating for a visit from a friend, from a sister nation to arrive.” “It is a desired, longed for and necessary visit” and that “reinforces the conviction that we have in Iran a friendly nation in the Middle East, with which we share, and we are confident that we can address the most complex global problems.”
“It is a desired, longed for and necessary visit” and that “reinforces the conviction that we have in Iran a friendly nation in the Middle East, with which we share”
no one expected that Díaz-Canel criticized his guest, neither because of diplomacy nor because of the dependence that Cuba has on any friend with oil – and, therefore, money – that arises. But the way he cajoled the ayatollah was not prescriptive either.
The president condemned “the interference of the Government of the United States and its allies in the internal problems of Iran”, without clarifying if he was referring to the inspection carried out on a country that so far this year has executed more than 200 people , most of them for drug-related crimes.
Raisi did not pick up the Cuban leader’s gauntlet and limited himself to talking about strengthening relations between both parties “especially in biotechnology and vaccine production,” he said.
Subsequently, both signed six agreements whose effective content is unknown, although the official press has announced them. The programs are for the integral cooperation of both nations, to favor bilateral exchange, a customs memorandum and the two most disturbing: justice and communications.
It has been said of the first that it intends to function as an exchange of experiences in the field of law, while in the second technology is mentioned as the axis and is based on “the common interest of the two governments to support the ideals of the society of the information and knowledge, in favor of the welfare of both peoples”.
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