Niger Termination of U.S. Military Ties Followed Accusation of Iran Uranium Deal

Wall Street Journal-March18th2024

Niger’s decision to end its counterterrorism alliance with Washington came after senior U.S. officials accused the country’s ruling junta of secretly exploring a deal to allow Iran access to its uranium reserves, Nigerien and U.S. officials say.

The decision to end military cooperation with the U.S. was announced Saturday night by a spokesman for the Nigerien junta. It deals a serious blow to the Biden administration’s efforts to contain a sprawling Islamist insurgency in the Sahel, the semiarid region south of the Sahara. It could affect a $110 million base that was built by the U.S. and is used to fly surveillance drones over West Africa. It could also possibly force the withdrawal of more than 600 American troops still stationed in Niger.

American officials had been working to salvage their relationship with Niger since the country’s military ousted President Mohamed Bazoum in a July coup, triggering restrictions on military aid under American law. The junta has been tightening ties with Russia and with two of its neighbors, Mali and Burkina Faso, which are also ruled by Moscow-aligned generals.

In recent months, however, U.S. and other Western officials say they had obtained intelligence indicating that the junta in Niamey was also considering a deal with Iran that would give Tehran access to some of Niger’s vast uranium reserves. The U.S. concern was that discussions on such an agreement proceeded in January, when Niger’s junta-appointed prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, met with President Ebrahim Raisi and other senior Iranian officials in Tehran.

Western officials said in February that talks between Niger and Iran had reached a very advanced stage. A person familiar with the matter said that the two parties had signed a preliminary agreement that would allow Tehran to obtain uranium from Niger. Two officials said that the deal wasn’t finalized.

Those concerns came to a head over the past week, when Molly Phee, U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, traveled to Niamey for talks with the junta on the two countries’ future relations and what the State Department said would be discussions on “Niger’s return to a democratic path.”

Phee was accompanied by Celeste Wallander, a senior Defense Department official, and Gen. Michael Langley, the head of the U.S. Africa Command, the State Department said.

During the meetings, Phee raised Washington’s alarm with officials in Niger about an agreement with Iran, according to officials in the U.S. and Niger, who described the meetings as very tense. Phee also criticized the lack of progress in returning Niger to an elected government and raised U.S. concerns about the imminent arrival of Russian military trainers and equipment.

Western governments have long accused Iran of developing a potential nuclear weapon program—a claim that Tehran denies. Unmonitored imports, Western officials fear, would make it easier for Iranian authorities to divert uranium from its civilian nuclear-energy program and enrich it to a grade that could be used for a weapon.

In a statement broadcast on state television, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, the junta spokesman, accused the U.S. of trying to prevent Niger from choosing its own diplomatic and military partners, saying that Phee had displayed a “condescending attitude” during the talks. He also said that Niger had never entered a uranium deal with Iran.