NIAMEY, Niger, March 11 (UPI) -- Iranian diplomats are reported to have quit the capital of the rickety West African state of Niger following a military coup that toppled President Mamadou Tandja.
Tandja had been courted by Tehran, which sought his country's large uranium deposits for its controversial nuclear program, says Intelligence Online, a French Web site that covers intelligence matters.
The aging Tandja, a former army officer, was toppled when mutinous soldiers stormed the presidential palace in a hail of gunfire Feb. 18 after he refused to step down after his mandate expired Dec. 22.
He pushed through a new constitution in August that removed any limit on presidential terms and gave him near-totalitarian powers. Tandja's whereabouts and condition are not known.
A military junta, headed by coup leader Col. Salou Djibou, took control of the Saharan state and called itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy. On March 1, it announced a 20-member Cabinet to run the country for a transitional period to pave the way for a return to democracy.
The government, headed by a civilian prime minister, Mahamadou Dandah, is composed mainly of technocrats without political affiliations. But it includes five senior army officers.
No time frame has been set for a return to civilian rule in the former French colony.
Western intelligence agencies have been monitoring events in Niger closely, fearing that Iran was planning to obtain uranium for what the United States says is a program to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says its intentions are peaceful.
Niger's uranium has caused the West problems before. Falsified reports that Saddam Hussein was seeking to acquire large amounts of the country's uranium were used to justify U.S. President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The Niamey government has for years been fighting nomadic Tuareg tribesmen who claim one of the world's largest deposits of uranium under the northern deserts. In 2008, Niger was the sixth largest uranium producer in the world.
Demand for the ore known as yellowcake soared in recent years as interest in nuclear power has grown amid worsening climate change. China and India are scouring the planet for uranium.
And Iran, which has some uranium of its own, has also been casting a covetous eye on Niger's vast deposits as Tehran's nuclear program continues despite Western efforts to curb it.
The mushrooming demand for the deposits has intensified the confrontation between the Niamey government and the Tuareg rebels even as France moves ahead with building the world's largest uranium mine in the northern desert.
Niger's uranium riches constitute the main geopolitical ramification of the coup, including Iran's efforts to obtain fuel for its nuclear program.
Intelligence Online said Tehran had been seeking to secure Tandja's cooperation through several major agricultural and infrastructure projects since the summer of 2009.
Iran's nuclear ambitions have caused great tension in the volatile Middle East and raised the prospect of unilateral pre-emptive attacks by Israel on Iran's nuclear infrastructure.
"While several countries have condemned the coup (most notably France) … the most important issue on the minds of Niger's main foreign investors … is the security of its uranium mining activities and how the junta will treat existing mining contracts," according to the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor.
It concluded that "it is unlikely that the new regime will change the way business is done."
Niger provides some 40 percent of France's uranium requirements. Indeed, the French, as the former colonial power, held a monopoly on Niger's uranium production for three decades until Niamey began to open up to other states.
At present, 76 percent of France's energy comes from nuclear power. So what happens in Niger is of immense importance to Paris and it is looking with some concern as China makes major inroads into the country's uranium production.
Uranium accounts for about half of Niger's exports and just about all the direct foreign investment. That means, said Stratfor, "that whoever controls the government's purse strings has access to big money …
"If the junta, for some reason, were to decide to adopt a hostile policy to French interests, Paris would not hesitate to deploy an expeditionary force to impose its will."
So the Supreme Council in Niamey "likely will try to convince France and China -- and all other nations with deals signed under the Tandja regime -- that the change in power will not threaten foreign investment in Niger," Stratfor noted.
