Iran and South Africa: Developments of Bilateral Relations and Future Capacity-Testing

To assess the foreign relations of any country, appropriate understanding and explaining of the national power particularly in areas as foreign policy, requirements and characteristics of the foreign environment, rules and paradigms dominant on regional and international environment, and recognizing opportunities, environmental weaknesses and existing threats etc. are necessary. African continent with its specific geographical, economic, cultural and political features in the Post-Cold War era and in light of the expansion of regionalism has turned into one of the most influential regions in which South Africa plays a key role. This paper, while reviewing the history of Iran’s relations with African continent, tries to show the importance of relations between South Africa and Iran and its probable results. The hypothesis of the present article is that expanding relations with regional as well as emerging powers in addition to increasing national interests and strengthening south-south co-operation lead to reducing the pressures by international and western authorities. The methodology of the research is descriptive-analytic. Also, it draws upon the findings of SWOT matrix (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). This matrix enables us to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of Islamic Republic of Iran as well as the opportunities and threats of the relations with South Africa to provide solutions for policy-makers in cultural, economic, political and social arenas.