Last month, Iranian Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education Bahram Einollahi met his Sudanese and Jordanian counterparts at an event in Egypt. During the meetings, he proposed reciprocal visits with both ministers to increase the scope for health cooperation. At a time of positive exchanges between Jordan and Iran, Einollahi emphasized that the two countries could cooperate in medicine, medical equipment, research, and faculty and student exchanges. Sudanese Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim also praised Iran’s efforts to combat disease and said Sudan was ready to cooperate and benefit from its experience in medical education, health, and treatment.
Although this may initially look like ordinary health cooperation between countries, it reflects a long-standing Iranian policy. For some time, Iran has built hospitals and clinics, sent health workers, and pursued various health partnerships, particularly in Middle Eastern and African countries. Its desire for health cooperation with Jordan immediately after Jordan’s July call for dialogue and stronger bilateral relations was no coincidence. Iran promotes and praises its health system. Doctors and health workers enjoy particular respect there. Iranians frequently discuss their doctors working at home and abroad and praise their abilities on every platform. This serves as a soft-power tool in foreign policy as well as domestically.
These hospitals, mostly built under the Iranian Red Crescent, operate and expand under different names in many countries, from Oman to Dubai and Benin to Uganda. Shahid Beheshti University’s medical faculty plays a key role in coordinating and planning these activities. One of Iran’s leading medical faculties, it provides everything needed for the hospitals’ construction and infrastructure. The last four ministers of health, treatment, and medical education have also served at this university. Prospective health cooperation among Jordan, Sudan, and Iran will probably be conducted through it as well.
Although these initiatives are presented as expressions of Iran’s policy of confronting the arrogant and supporting the oppressed—the mostakber and mostazaf—their important diplomatic and intelligence dimensions must not be forgotten. Seeking to gain ground in Africa and the Middle East, Iran sends these countries and their people a humanitarian message: “We stand with you.” In countries where it cannot exercise soft power through religion and Shiism, humanitarian assistance such as schools and hospitals provides other instruments for expanding its influence. Humanitarian NGOs, schools, and hospitals also offer ideal cover for intelligence personnel. They provide one of the shortest routes to the personal information of hospital patients. Iran thus creates room for maneuver through both affiliated cultural centers and seemingly public-benefit facilities such as hospitals and schools.
These activities are not confined to Africa and the region. Iran is also known to recruit doctors and nurses already working in the field, as well as staff in other institutions with access to personal information. Alongside recruitment, it sends personnel to different countries as asylum seekers or researchers, under professional identities ranging from doctors, nurses, and midwives to hairdressers and specialists in hair systems or artificial nails. In 2017, for example, the United States deported a doctor attempting to enter for medical research on the grounds that he had links to the IRGC. Many other examples could be cited.
One example of Iran’s activities in Africa began in 2015, when its Foreign Ministry established contacts across the continent to improve bilateral relations and strengthen its position at the United Nations. Visiting Uganda, then-Foreign Minister Javad Zarif secured a pledge of support in the UN Security Council. Soon afterward, the countries’ law-enforcement chiefs met in Tehran and agreed to exchange experience and information on building a national police force and combating organized crime and terrorist organizations. Iran also agreed to train Uganda’s police, and the Iranian Red Crescent offered $1.5 million to build a 100-bed health clinic. Zarif visited Uganda again in 2017. Alongside meetings with Iranian expatriates, he inaugurated the 50-bed Iran–Uganda Hospital in Kampala, built with Iranian funding. Constructed under the coordination of then-Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi and Shahid Beheshti University, it remains active in Kampala today.
Iran actively pursues similar work elsewhere in Africa. Its activities in South Africa have continued for nearly twenty years. In the summer of 2006, for example, a delegation of Iranian doctors traveled there to help address a shortage of physicians. Many South African companies also organize medical tourism to Iran, approximately 8,000 kilometers away. One, Aria Med Tour, promises treatment and cosmetic procedures at a quarter of the price.
Iran pursues active health diplomacy in the Caucasus as well. Thousands travel from both Armenia and Azerbaijan to Iran for treatment every year. Following Iran’s stance during the Second Karabakh War, this remained a subject of debate in Azerbaijan until recently. Earlier this year, Iran made Armenia an offer similar to those extended to Jordan and Sudan, and held talks on the subject. In 2016, it likewise expressed a wish to open a health center in Armenia and undertake joint health activities, making special visits for that purpose.
For Iran, then, the health sector remains a marketable instrument. It seeks to become a medical-tourism hub and establish a presence particularly in the Middle East and Africa, beyond its immediate neighbors. Viewing less-developed countries as markets, it prioritizes investment there. Through health and education activities in countries it enters under a humanitarian banner, it seeks to reinforce an image as a “true friend.” Iran influences its proxies through religious motifs; where that is impossible and its room for maneuver is narrower, it seeks a humanitarian presence under the principle of “standing with the oppressed.” Wherever it wants to develop relations and establish itself, it plays the health and education cards. Its offers of health cooperation to Jordan and Sudan immediately after Jordan’s positive messages are therefore entirely consistent with policies pursued for more than twenty years.
This article was first published by the Center for Iranian Studies (İRAM) on November 13, 2022.
Link: https://www.iramcenter.org/iranin-alternatif-yumusak-guc-enstrumani-saglik-diplomasisi-843