Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni who doubles as the Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) has condemned Iranian Islamists, the Israeli government and Western imperialists for perpetuating cycles of violence and injustice in the region.
Museveni’s statement comes in response to a complaint from the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda about Uganda’s delayed comment on the crisis.
“Citizens of the World, my names are: General (Rtd) Yoweri Museveni of the Resistance Movement of Uganda and President of Uganda. I am also Chairman of the NAM until 2027,” he began.
He said, “The other day, I saw a Complaint by the Iranian Ambassador to Uganda as to why we have not commented on the tragic situation in the Middle East. It is true that we have not yet externalized our long-held views on that situation.”
Museveni said Uganda maintains “good relations with both Israel and Iran,” as well as with the United States and others and that his country’s resistance legacy shapes its principled stance.
“In our long history of resistance, we abhor chauvinism of identity (race, tribe, religion, etc.) or gender (looking down upon women). We always stand for the politics of interests—legitimate interests of the stakeholders.”
He then laid out a four-pronged critique of those he called the “mistake makers” in the Middle East crisis.
- Iranian Islamists Denying Israel’s Legitimacy
Museveni recounted frank conversations with past Iranian leaders, criticizing their refusal to accept Israel’s right to exist.
“Whenever I visit Iran, like when His Excellency Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was President, I told them that their stand that Israel is a ‘transplant’ in the Middle East and does not belong there legitimately, is a mistake.”
He referred to biblical history to defend Israel’s place in the region: “According to the Bible, Israel is part of that area. The Romans dispersed the Jews after Masada, who continued to suffer wherever they went… until they tried to go back to their homeland with the Zionist Movement.”
He noted, “The habitual mistake makers, the British imperialists… offered the Jews Uganda as a homeland! Imagine the absurdity. The Jews wisely refused the ridiculous offer and insisted on Palestine where they had a historical, legitimate claim.”
He added that it was wrong for “some of the Arabs and Iranian Islamists” to reject the UN partition of Palestine between two peoples.
- Israeli Rejection of a Two-State Solution
Turning to Israel, Museveni criticized its refusal to implement a two-state solution:
“Why have they refused the implementation of the two States solution? It is not correct for them to say that the Palestinians do not belong there.”
He challenged the erasure of Palestinian presence with a biblical reference:
“Whenever I would meet Mzee Benzion Netanyahu… I would ask him about the 7 tribes of Canaan… the Jebusites, etc. What happened to them? How about the Philistines of Gaza?”
Museveni drew a global comparison: “If you say [Palestinians] do not belong there, then what would you say about the Europeans who migrated to the Americas, Australia, South Africa, etc., in just the last 400 years?”
He likened this mindset to Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians from Uganda in the 1970s—a policy Museveni’s movement opposed.
3. Western Imperialism and the Rise of Iranian Extremism
Museveni blamed Western interventionism particularly the CIA for destabilizing Iran and provoking radicalism:
“The third mistake-makers… are the Western imperialists, led by the CIA, who, in 1953, overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, because they wanted to steal the oil of Iran.”
“It is them that created that huge resentment that produced these clerics who have their own mistaken positions.”
He expressed surprise at the Iranian leadership’s ignorance of their own ancient history:
“Imagine, me Yoweri Museveni of the Great Lakes of Africa… I had heard repeated references to the ‘Persians and Medians.’ When I visited Iran, I asked Ahmadinejad: ‘What happened and who were the Medians?’ Neither Ahmadinejad nor anybody around knew.”
4. Force as a Failed Solution
Museveni denounced military interventions in internal conflicts:
“Mistake number four is to believe that the use of especially force from outside the concerned country is a solution. It not and always invites reactions that may even affect the interventionists.”
He listed failed historical examples of foreign intervention:
“The Papacy trying to maintain Catholic hegemony in Europe… the 14 intervention powers that intervened in the Soviet Union… Where is the Austro-Hungarian Empire?”
“Force should be for legitimate defence and not for aggression.”
Museveni concluded with a spiritual plea, calling on all faiths to pray for wisdom and peace: “As I conclude, I would like to use this opportunity to remind all of us that we are all praying People. Perhaps it’s time that we all agree to pray together and consult that Creator that cares for all of us without preference.”
He prayed, “May we have the willingness to humble ourselves and pray and ask for God’s wisdom, that we may do what is right in His eyes… Maybe that time has come and only He has the power, the right and the Justice to decide what is the way forward for all of us.”
