Gambia Looses Over $2bn After Iran Fracas

The relationship between the two countries is severed after seizure
 of container loaded with weapons from Iran bound for The Gambia

The Gambia is likely to lose over $2bn of Iranian funded projects after cutting ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, analysts have said.

Efforts to reach Zaed Zare, the Iranian ambassador to The Gambia, proved futile. However, Senior Iranian official Alaeddin Borujerdi told the BBC on Tuesday 23 November that Gambia’s decision to cut diplomatic ties was as a result of pressure from the United States.

The Gambia has announced the cutting off of all ties with Iran on Monday, November 22, 2010 and ordered all Iranian government representatives to leave the country within 48 hours.

But there are no official reasons from authorities in The Gambia advanced for the move.

This cut of ties followed Nigeria’s alleged interception of an illegal arms shipment in Lagos from Iran, destined for The Gambia last month.

The Nigerian authorities said they had discovered the weapons, including rocket launchers and grenades, in containers labeled as building materials.

The France-based shipping company CMA CGM which transported the shipment said attempts were made to send it to The Gambia before the Nigerian police seized it.

Mr Borujerdi, chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s parliament, confirmed that a private Iranian company had sent the arms to The Gambia but said this was “in line with international laws”, reports the official Islamic Republic News Agency (Irna).

Nigeria has reported the seizure to the UN Security Council. Iran whose nuclear programme is banned from supplying, selling or transferring arms is under UN sanctions.

According to a statement from The Gambian foreign ministry all government of The Gambia projects and programmes, which were [being] implemented in co-operation with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, have been cancelled.

Reports have it that the weapons seized by Nigerian security officials in Lagos included rocket launchers and grenades, adding that ties between Tehran and Banjul became closer after Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh came to power in 1994.

The Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a guest of honour of the 2006 African Union Summit hosted by The Gambia.

The Gambia has been among those developing nations who have defended what president Jammeh called “Iran’s Peaceful nuclear enrichment” on his last visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran.