The late Cuban president and revolutionary Fidel Castro had a lasting impact and legacy in the Middle East and Africa that was centered around the region’s struggles against British and French colonialism and later against U.S. imperialism.
Egypt
Quickly after the 1959 revolution in Cuba, Fidel began to develop close relations with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had led the 1952 overthrow of the British-backed monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms.
Nasser, just like Fidel, had an anti-colonial internationalist view which translated into his support for independence wars in several nations in the region including Palestine, Syria, Yemen and other African countries.
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In the early 1960s, Raul Castro and Che Guevara visited Cairo and established contacts with African liberation movements stationed in, and supported by, Cairo. Nasser cooperated with Che Guevara during his guerrilla operation in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1965.
In the late 1960s the Cuban government sent military troops to Egypt to aid Arab forces, from Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization fighting against Israel during the “war of attrition” that followed the Six-Day war.
Fidel also sent troops to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during the 1973 Yom Kippur war, a conflict fought by a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria against Israel and its occupation of Arab territories.
Algeria
In 1961, Cuba began its first internationalist mission by providing assistance to Algeria’s National Liberation Front fighting against French colonialism.
Fidel established relations with the Algerian FLN in France and Morocco. The war for independence had started a few years before the Cuban Revolution in 1954. The large Cuban military support for the rebels quickly turned the tide in Algeria's struggle as the country gained its independence in 1962 just a year after Fidel’s support poured in.
Large quantities of weapons were shipped to the FLN through Morocco between 1960 and 1962. Shelter, medical and educational services were provided in Cuba for wounded Algerians, while political and military cooperation in the fields of intelligence were initiated.
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The island nation also deployed Cuban military forces in Algeria to help the young nation against the U.S.-backed Moroccan aggression of 1963, which sought to expand by encroaching on contested areas of the border.
Shortly after he was named Algeria’s first prime minister, Ahmed Ben Bella declared his country’s struggle a Cuban-style socialism after a visit to the island in 1962. “Castro is my brother, Nasser is my teacher, Tito is my example,” Ben Balla proudly announced following his country’s declaration of independence in 1962.
Since then the two countries have maintained a close relationship on several fronts including health and education.
Cuban forces remained to train the Algerian army for more than a year but a military confrontation with Morocco never materialized and a conflict was avoided.
Just a few months ago, Algeria agreed to send Cuba crude oil for the first time to offset lower supplies from Venezuela.
Palestine
Since the early stages of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro was one of the main vocal champions of the Palestinian resistance against Israeli colonialism and occupation.
Diplomatic ties between Cuba and Palestine began in the same year that Fidel became prime minister in 1959 following the Cuban Revolution when Raul Castro and Che Guevara visited the Gaza Strip.
Fidel invited late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to Cuba eight times, where the Cuban leader "always welcomed (Arafat) like he was a head of state," Palestinian officials told Al-Jazeera.
Fidel broke diplomatic relations with Israel in 1973 and has repeatedly called Zionism a form of fascism and racial discrimination. Cuba was one of the first countries in the world to fully recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization when it was founded in 1964.
The Palestinian resistance group Fatah, which was founded by Arafat the same year as the Cuban Revolution, received military support from Cuba throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1970s the military support from Fidel extended to other Palestinian groups including the Marxist groups the Popular Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The support included weapons and military and intelligence training by the Cuban army in Jordan, Yemen and Lebanon.
In 1975 Fidel cosponsored a United Nations resolution, which was approved that year, stating that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." However, the resolution was eventually repealed in 1991.
In 2014 he said Israel was committing a “Palestinian Holocaust” in his reaction to the brutal Israeli 50-day war on occupied Gaza that year.
Yemen
As Yemeni Marxist rebels kicked off an insurgency and independence war against British colonialism in 1963, Cuba joined their struggle and provided them with military support until they prevailed in 1970.
Emerging as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, it adopted a socialist state system in line with Cuba’s, where hundreds of Cuban soldiers were sent to help train the country's military and help counter threats from hostile neighbors.
