Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine said in an interview on Tuesday that his government’s relations with the United States broke down because the Biden administration adopted a “condescending tone and lack of respect.”
Zeine said Niger grew disenchanted with the modest American military presence on its soil because U.S. troops “did nothing while the terrorists killed people and burned towns.”
“It is not a sign of friendship to come on our soil but let the terrorists attack us. We have seen what the United States will do to defend its allies, because we have seen Ukraine and Israel,” he told the Washington Post on Tuesday.
The U.S. has about a thousand troops in Niger, largely concentrated around two bases from which drones can be launched to monitor extremist movements in the Sahel region. U.S. officials say the operation, which began in 2012, has been successful at combating terrorism.
The size of the deployment was reduced considerably when the elected government of Niger was overthrown by a military coup in July 2023. The coup also spelled the end of U.S. troops providing training and assistance to Nigerien forces, a decision Zeine blamed for causing resentment in Niger.
Zeine was installed by the junta, which calls itself the National Council for Safeguarding the Homeland (CNSP, to use its French acronym), in August of that year.
The coup strained relations between Niger and the Western world were, giving Russia an opportunity to step in. Zeine told the Washington Post he thought Washington’s differences with the CNSP might not have been insurmountable if the Biden administration had chosen a different diplomatic approach.
The prime minister said the pivotal moment was a meeting with Molly Phee, the top U.S. State Department official for African affairs. Niger officials have frequently hinted that Phee and other Biden emissaries were arrogant and offended them enough to break off negotiations. Zeine said Phee crossed a line by threatening the coup with sanctions if it insisted on selling uranium to Iran.
“When she finished, I said, ‘Madame, I am going to summarize in two points what you have said. First, you have come here to threaten us in our country. That is unacceptable. And you have come here to tell us with whom we can have relationships, which is also unacceptable. And you have done it all with a condescending tone and a lack of respect,’” Zeine recalled on Tuesday.
Zeine denied that his government is planning to sell uranium to Iran and said that if such a decision is even made, it would be announced in public rather than negotiated “under the table.” He suggested the Biden administration might have fabricated the Iran-uranium story to create a pretext for invading Niger, as the U.S. invaded Iraq in the 2000s, which seems highly unlikely.
Zeine said he went out of his way to show Phee that Niger wanted friendly relations with the United States, even as it turned against former colonial power France, but his attempts at friendship were rebuffed and the Biden administration stopped taking his calls. He saw this as a rude and demeaning effort by the Biden team to force the CNSP to accept its demands of zero contact with Russia and Iran.
An unnamed Biden administration official did not dispute this interpretation when contacted by the Washington Post for comment.
“The message to the CNSP in March was a coordinated U.S. government position, delivered in a professional manner, in response to valid concerns about developments in Niger. The CNSP was presented with a choice, not an ultimatum, about whether they wished to continue their partnership with us, respectful of our democratic values and national security interests,” the official said.
Although the Biden administration spent the last several months telling reporters that it could probably work out a deal to keep American forces at their posts in the vitally important Niger counter-terrorism operation, on Tuesday the anonymous official said the administration is now focused on working with the CNSP to “draw down U.S. forces in an orderly fashion and ultimately reposition them elsewhere, consistent with U.S. security interests.”
Zeine concluded by saying Niger still wants friendly relations and economic ties with the United States. He said his message to the State Department was: “If American investors arrived, we would give them what they wanted. We have uranium. We have oil. We have lithium. Come, invest. It is all we want.”
Iran’s PressTV on Wednesday took Zeine’s Washington Post interview as a sign that Niger is moving decisively out of America’s orbit, and into the “open arms” of Moscow and Tehran:
A first set of about 100 Russian advisors arrived in Niger on April 10 along with air defense systems after talks between Tiani and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian advisors are now staying at a Nigerien air base near the Niamey airport.
Zeine visited Iran in late January and held talks with President Ebrahim Raeisi to discuss bilateral ties and issues of common interest.
Back in October 2023, Foreign Minister of Niger, Bakary Yaou Sangare, also visited Tehran to explore opportunities for strengthening political and economic ties, as well as boosting cooperation in scientific and technological sectors between the two countries.
Republican senators on Wednesday blasted the Biden administration for losing Africa to Russia and China.
“While the Russians and Chinese are working overtime to oust the U.S. from a region that will soon be home to a quarter of the earth’s population, the Biden Administration continues to fumble the ball and weaken our nation’s strategic interests with our African partners,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).
Sen. James Risch (R-ID) said the Biden administration offers plenty of “soaring rhetoric about its successes in Africa,” but the reality is a string of diplomatic blunders like the one in Niger, leaving Russia and other “bad actors” to expand their influence even though most Africans would prefer to be aligned with the West.
“The U.S. has the power to swiftly reverse the current trend of African nations favoring anti-Western views. By taking stronger policy actions in partnership with the African people, we can make a significant and immediate impact, and reverse these trends,” Risch said.
