Gambia: Govt Severs Diplomatic Ties with Iran

By Eric Sande

BANJUL---The Gambian government on Monday 22 October announced it has broken all ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran. 48 hours which ends today was the time given to all Iranian government representatives to leave the country.

With no clear reason for the sudden diplomatic manoeuvre by the Gambian government, the statement issued by the Gambian Foreign ministry said "all government of the Gambia projects and programmes, which were implemented in cooperation with the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been cancelled."

The two nations are said to have been banished internationally. Iran is placed under four sets of UN sanctions for its nuclear programme and Gambia accused of rights abuses. The two had since then been in support of each other.

This development came weeks after a cache of weapons said to have emanated from Iran were intercepted in Nigeria. Gambia was named as one of the destinations of that controversial package which some documents in other quarters have identified as addressed to the State House in Banjul. Banjul though has never made any official statement regarding the intercepted weapons, even though the country’s name continues to appear everywhere the thorny issue is mentioned.

Gambia and Iran cemented bilateral ties in November 2009, when the Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, made a two-day visit to the West African nation. That followed an earlier visit by the controversial Iranian leader to Banjul, at the invitation of President Yahya Jammeh, during the July 2006 AU Banjul Summit. That was reciprocated by a visit to Tehran, some five month later, by the Gambian president.