Iran would have bought uranium in Niger, providing drones in Sudan

The State Department and the President of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee joined a choir of analysts this week in the Warning of Fox News Digital of “important threats to American national security” of the actions of Iran in Africa.

Tehran is accused of having bought uranium in Niger, providing drones in violation of a UN arms embargo to Forces in Sudan and promoting the growth of the destabilization of Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism on the continent.

“The long arm of Iran’s terror extends worldwide, including in Africa,” said the president of foreign relations in the Senate, Jim Risch, R-Assaho, told Fox News Digital, adding: “Iran is an enemy of freedom everywhere, and a threat to American national security; our partners in Africa must proceed with caution before committing to this dangerous regime.”

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General Abdourahamane Tiani (2nd L), the leader of the military regime in Niger, welcomes the thousands of people who gathered in the largest stadium in Niamey for the launch of festivities marking the first anniversary of his arrival after July 26, 2004. (Photo of Boureima Hama / AFP via Getty Images)

The reports initially surfaced last year since the first Institute for Science and International Security, then the NGO of Washington, the NGO based in Washington, which the West African Niger nation had negotiated the sale in Tehran of $ 56 million in supposedly yellow cake-uranium oxide. The 300 tonnes of uranium, some of which, suggest a source, has already been delivered partly delivered, would be sufficiently sufficient to make 30 nuclear weapons.

Analysts say that Niger could prepare to sell even more “yellow cake” in Iran. Uranium in the country has until recently been extracted by French companies, such as Orano. But the military leaders of Niger, who came to power during a coup in 2023, announced that they would revoke mining licenses and nationalize mining operations. Iran would like to conclude an agreement to start extraction of uranium itself in Niger, in particular around Imouraren, an area where the soil would contain 200,000 tonnes of metal.

In a decision considered to Russia and Iran, Niger put an end to an agreement with the Biden administration last year, which led to the closing of two American military bases in the country which were used for anti-terrorist operations.

An American and Niger flag is raised side by side at the Air Force Base Camp and other staff supporting the construction of the Niger 201 air base in Agadez, Niger. The United States has given its last military base in Niger to the country’s authorities, the United States Defense Ministry and the Department of Defense of Niger announced in a joint statement on Monday, August 5, 2024. (AP photo / Carley Petesch, file)

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“In Niger, the French media covering the continent reported that there is a secret agreement between Iran and Niger which exchanged uranium oxide for drones or energy,” Behnam Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. Taleblu, principal director of the Iranian program of the for Defense of Democracies Foundation (FDD), added: “The Islamic Republic is an opportunistic actor, both in the Middle East and abroad”.

A spokesperson for the State Department has confirmed to Fox News Digital that Iranian activities in Africa are on their radar, saying: “In Niger, we monitor the possibility of an Iranian acquisition of uranium. We would have serious concerns concerning Niger or any country, transferring uranium to Iran.”

The spokesperson continued: “The continuous development of its nuclear program by Iran (and its) role as a principal sponsor of the state of terrorism and the destabilization of regional behavior, constitute significant threats to American national security and global stability.

“The president was clear: Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”

An army soldier walked before the Republican Palace in Khartoum, Sudan, after being taken over by the Army of Sudan on Friday March 21, 2025. (Photo ap)

Iran, which would be interested in the gold of Sudan, provided Mohajer-6 drones to the government of Khartoum, according to the Africa Defense Forum in Africa. They were used effectively by Sudan to recently recover the capital, Khartoum and the presidential palace.

FDD’s taleblu added: “Iranian drones are active on four continents today, one of which is the African continent, in particular by looking at conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia.”

The spokesperson for the State Department weighed “on Sudan, we are aware of the reports. The RSF and the SAF used weapons acquired from foreign actors against the civilian population and the infrastructure and have committed violations and abuse of human rights.

Iranian supreme chief Ali Khamenei addresses the Nation on television from Iranian state television in Tehran, Iran, June 18, 2025. (Office of the Supreme Chief of Iran / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Providing weapons to one of the belligerents prolongs the conflict and increasing the risk of additional destabilization in Sudan and in the region. The United States calls for any external support for the parties at war, and urges all our partners to put pressure for a complete cessation of hostilities and an increase in endless humanitarian access,” concluded the spokesperson.

Then there is the psychological warfare reported by Iran against African communities. “The basic strategy of Iran Africa is to export its ideology to these communities as a counter-balance that it considers anti-Iranian efforts in the Middle East”, Frans Cronje, The president of the Yorktown Foundation for Freedom of Washington, DC, and a former chief of the South African Racial Relations Institute, told Fox News Digital.

A Nigerian Shiite religious is located below the photos of the Iranian, Lebanese and Nigerian leaders of the Islamic center of the Islamic center in the city in the north of Kano, in Nigeria. (Photographer: Donna Abu-Nasr / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Cronje continued: “Africa has 1.5 billion people. About a third of them are Muslim and represent a quarter of all Muslims in the world, more than the number in the Middle East. Muslims serve as dominant groups through a large part of North Africa and the East African Coast.”

“The Iranian African strategy can be considered as having three components,” said Cronje. “The first is the provision of training and material support for extremist groups in Africa to help the export of terrorism on a global scale and to target Christians and pro-Western communities on the continent, while creating a high-level environment for Western investors.

“To this end, the scores of the global index of terrorist threats for several African countries have come to go beyond those of traditional terrorist staples of the Middle East. Christians in Africa are confronted with growing volumes of horrible attacks, including burns and decapitations of Christian church, and it has become common that Africa takes into account the major part of global deaths related to global death annually.

In this June 6, 2018, the weft of the Islamic Republic Broadcasting, IRIB, IRIB, public television, three versions of national built centrifuge are presented in a live television program of Natanz, an Iranian enrichment factory of uranium, in Iran.

“The second is to identify the Shiite and Sunni communities which can be radicalized against the West as well as against Iranian opponents in the Arab world. Iran has employed university and cultural centers of Al-Mustafa in more than 30 African countries to train clerics and religious leaders.

“A third pillar of the strategy is that Iran has deepened links of diplomatic and economic cooperation with dozens of African governments and commercial organizations to win trade and investment agreements which have it to escape global sanctions, as well as to ensure the diplomatic support of African governments on global forces such as UN, for measures ranging from its investment program who threaten Isa.

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“For example,” concluded Cronje, “just a few months ago, more than 700 delegates from nearly 40 African countries attended an investment conference in Tehran.”

In summary, the Taleblu of the FDD said that “the threat that the Islamic Republic poses on the African continent is both important and diversified. Research to export its revolution by religious indoctrination via religious seminars related to the State, to drone sales, the largest state sponsor in the world has not missed this opportunity to provoke chaos below