Trading with Our Enemies

Accourding to the Weekly Standard, while western nations are isolating the Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, Iran is supplying Zimbabwe financial, military, and commercial support.

Talk has turned to whether immediate food needs might be funded by China or Iran. "We don't know where they will get the money from," says one aid worker. "[Iranian president Mohammad] Khatami was in Zimbabwe recently, so we wonder if it's someone like that."

The writer asks an interesting question:

One trader tells me to expect an increase in food traffic between South Africa and Zimbabwe over the next few weeks, as more funding, probably from Tehran, buys grain in Johannesburg. If true, one wonders, What the Iranians are getting in return?

Zimbabwe watchers? Any ideas?