KAMPALA – Secretary for Education Service Commission Dr. Asumani Lukwago has called upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to change its tactics but not a strategy, and signs a peace deal with the State of Israel.
Dr. Lukwago, a former Permanent Secretary Ministry said, it is high time the Islamic republic changed its policy and talk peace with Israel to the extent of recognizing its existence and both countries changed ambassadors.
He was speaking at a symposium to mark the 42nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution held at Islamic University in Uganda, Kampala Campus Kibuli on Monday, February 08th. It was organized by the African Journalism Institute for International Affairs (TAJIIA), Homeland Media Group, and Cultural Consul of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Uganda.
Dr. Lukwago, a medical doctor by profession, who said that he was a long-time friend to Iran right from secondary school days and that he was speaking in his personal capacity, said shifting in tactics will save Iran and the Muslim World and humanity from losing nuclear scientists that are being murdered on a pretext of fighting terrorism.
He said that confrontation with Israel by Arab and Muslim countries has given it an excuse to administer terror in the Middle East including occupying Golan Heights from Syria, destroying Iraq and Libya, and suggested that as a tactical withdraw, Iran and other Middle Eastern countries behave like Egypt under the late President Anwar El Sadat, and make peace with Israel. “The Arab Republic of Egypt is not very friendly to Israel but at least there is no state of war,” he said.
Right now, fo0llowing Egypt, some Arab countries have made peace deals with Israel including the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. President Yoweri Museveni said recently that, with the late Sudanese female diplomat, Hajjati Nagiwah Muhammad, he was able to broker a peace deal between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on his last visit to Uganda, and Sudan’s new military authorities.
Others like The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are said to be in secret talks with Netanyahu, according to Al Jazeera TV based in the Kingdom of Qatar,
although both sides deny. Another main speaker, veteran journalist Ahmed Kateregga Musaazi, a Communications Assistant with Government Citizen Interaction Center (GCIC) at the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance, said that changing tactics but not the strategy is acceptable in the struggle.
He recalled that according to the Camp David Treaty between Egypt and Israel, the State of Israel and the nation-state of Palestine were to co-exist as twin sister states but the Arab sheikhdoms that are making separate deals with the Israelis have sacrificed the Palestinians.
President Museveni, in the presence of the late Col. Muammar El Qaddafi of Libya, told the Afro -Arab Youth festival at Munyonyo 12 years ago, that Israel and Palestine should co-exist as twin sister states although the audience which was predominantly Arab, protested shouting that they wanted to wipe out Israel from the world map. “Palestine nation existed before the State of Israel came in place, both nation-states should co-exist by 1947 UN General Assembly Resolution No.181 other than each vowing to wipe out another,” he said.
Dr. Lukwago said that Iran is not only a regional but a world power, ranking 11th militarily compared to Uganda which is 14th in Africa and therefore will not be speaking from a point of weakness but a point of strength. “The other time the former US President Trump wanted to declare war on Iran but reversed it immediately because he was aware that Iran was a power to reckon with,” he said adding that the revolution will be consolidated with Iran making peace with its neighbors including Israel, and its arch-rival, USA. He promised to sponsor a trip, in a post-Covid-19 era, to Iran, for more dialogue on the subject of Iran making peace with its
adversaries.
The Chancellor of the Iranian Cultural Center Dr. Muhammad Reza declined to comment on Dr. Lukwago’s statement. He said that it was
political that had to be done by ambassadors and foreign ministers in their diplomatic exchanges of messages. He said the 1979 Islamic revolution was not a coup d’état but a popular uprising right from grass root people including peasants, workers, students, professionals, clerics as a result of the Iranian society is divided into three distinct classes; Call one of the Shah (King) and the nobles including his family, the second class of aristocrats and the third forces of the urban and rural poor.
Dr. Reza, who said that he is a friend of Africa having spent over 20 years in Africa especially in West African countries like Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria, and his son is married to an African daughter of Mende nationality in Sierra Leone, said that Africans have a lot to learn from Imam Ayatollah Khomeini’s works through which he mobilized Iranians of all faiths, Muslims and non-Muslims alike to wipe out a puppet regime.
He said that under the Islamic revolution, the rights of religious minorities like Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians are respected and they are especially represented in Parliament. “Imam Ayatollah cautioned us against being extremists.
Ahmed Kateregga said that Iran is one of the ancient nation-states that has survived up to today and recalled in 1975 when it cerebrated 5,000 years of an uninterrupted monarchy. “Compare that to ours of Buganda that is over 700 years and Bunyoro about 1,000 years,” he said adding that, one of the forerunners of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi, Tanzania’s Revolutionary Party, was Afro Shiraz Party which spearheaded the 1964 Zanzibar revolution. “Shiraz is a province from Iran, and those people migrated to East Africa coast and intermarried with us and we produced the Swahili culture,” he said adding that at Bigobyamugenyi traditional cultural site of the Abachwezi, beads from Mesopotamia now Iraq were excavated which shows that there was trade between the Gulf and the Great Lakes Region, right from ancient times.
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