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Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has secured a fuel deal with Iran during his state visit to Tehran this week.

Zimbabwe's state fuel supplier continues to be desperately short of fuel because the country lacks foreign currency for essential imports.

Mr. Mugabe has returned to Zimbabwe and says he has secured a pledge from Iran for its technicians to investigate whether it is possible to resuscitate the country's only oil refinery. The refinery, in Zimbabwe's eastern border town Mutare, was forced to close almost 40 years ago, when the world imposed trade and diplomatic sanctions against the then white ruled Rhodesia.

The refinery was built to process imported Iranian crude oil.

Now Zimbabwe depends on imported refined fuel, which it mainly gets by road from South Africa.