Iran President Decries Trump’s Africa Comments
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at his US counterpart for his “deplorable and wrong” comments about African countries, saying US politicians have not yet realized the noble position of African people.
“The US president’s (phrase used to refer to) African people was very deplorable and wrong and a condemned move, which shows that the current US politicians have not yet recognized the position and greatness of Africans properly,” Rouhani said in a meeting with Speaker of Senegal’s Parliament Moustapha Niasse in Tehran on Tuesday.
Trump has reportedly used an offensive word to describe African countries during an Oval Office meeting on Thursday with a group of senators. He also questioned the need to admit more Haitians to the US, saying he would prefer immigrants from countries such as Norway instead.
Elsewhere in the meeting, the Iranian president expressed Tehran’s readiness to enhance political, economic, cultural and scientific relations with Senegal, saying such ties would open the doors for Africa’s cooperation with the West Asia region.
The Senegalese speaker is among the parliamentary officials attending the 13th Conference of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Member States (PUIC) in Iran.
In another meeting on Tuesday, President Rouhani and Speaker of People's National Assembly of Algeria Said Bouhadja discussed ways to promote cooperation between Tehran and Algiers, particularly in the economic arena.
Hailing the common views that Iran and Algeria share about regional and international issues, Rouhani stressed the need for the two countries to expand interaction for the settlement of the Muslim world problems.
The 13th PUIC conference got underway in Tehran on Tuesday morning. Preparations for the conference were made during an extraordinary meeting of the Parliamentary Union of OIC Member States (PUOICM) on Palestine, held in December.
The OIC, the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations, has around 60 members.
The organization, established in 1969, was created to protect the interests of Muslims and promote international peace.
