TEHRAN - Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has announced an agreement with some African countries to barter petrochemical products for basic goods, Shana reported.

Raisi, who has returned to Tehran from a three-nation Africa tour, said on Friday that facilitating the import of raw materials and implementation of extraterritorial cultivation projects were also among the objectives of his visits to the continent.

“Like Iran’s relations with the Asian states and other countries of the world, our ties with Africa are important and relations with this continent, the land of opportunities, should not be ignored,” he noted.

“The world is not limited to just a few Western countries, and we seek to have relations with all states in the world,” said the president and reiterated, “To us, the African Continent is as important as the American and Asian continents.”

During Raisi and his delegation’s landmark African tour, 21 documents on cooperation in different fields were signed between Iran and the three countries of Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

The African tour was the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade aimed at diversifying relations amid U.S. sanctions.

EF/MA