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Iranian President Raisi Begins Africa Trip with Visit to Kenya

05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
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Iranian President Raisi Begins Africa Trip with Visit to Kenya

05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi received a red carpet welcome from Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he began a three-country tour of Africa that Tehran has touted as a "new beginning" in relations with the continent.
Raisi's trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling US sanctions, Reuters said.
Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-US President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with US sanctions.
Iran's trade with African countries will increase to more than $2 billion this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.
Raisi was welcomed by an honor guard at Kenya's presidential palace before joining Ruto for a meeting, video posted on social media by Kenya's presidency showed.
His trip to Kenya, East Africa's economic powerhouse, will provide the two countries an "opportunity to review and re-energise their bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries," Kenya's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe.
The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

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Israeli Government Orders Public Entities to Stop Advertising in Haaretz Newspaper

A woman reads the 13 February issue of the Haaretz daily newspaper in Jerusalem (AFP)
A woman reads the 13 February issue of the Haaretz daily newspaper in Jerusalem (AFP)
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Israeli Government Orders Public Entities to Stop Advertising in Haaretz Newspaper

A woman reads the 13 February issue of the Haaretz daily newspaper in Jerusalem (AFP)
A woman reads the 13 February issue of the Haaretz daily newspaper in Jerusalem (AFP)

The Israeli government has ordered all public entities to stop advertising in the Haaretz newspaper, which is known for its critical coverage of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territories.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi said Sunday that the government had approved his proposal after Haaretz’ publisher called for sanctions against Israel and referred to Palestinian militants as “freedom fighters.”
“We advocate for a free press and freedom of expression, but also the freedom of the government to decide not to fund incitement against the State of Israel,” Karhi wrote on the social platform X.
Noa Landau, the deputy editor of Haaretz, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “working to silence independent and critical media,” comparing him to autocratic leaders in other countries.
Haaretz regularly publishes investigative journalism and opinion columns critical of Israel’s ongoing half-century occupation of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
It has also been critical of Israel’s war conduct in Gaza at a time when most local media support the war and largely ignore the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
In a speech in London last month, Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken said Israel has imposed “a cruel apartheid regime” on the Palestinians and was battling “Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls ‘terrorists.’”
He later issued a statement, saying he had reconsidered his remarks.
“For the record, Hamas are not freedom fighters,” he posted on X. “I should have said: using terrorism is illegitimate. I was wrong not to say that.”