By Omar Bah
The Gambia has re-established diplomatic ties with Iran after almost 14 years. On Monday, July 29, the Iran Foreign Ministry announced that both countries had decided to resume diplomatic relations. The decision came after Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri, met with his Gambian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara.
The Gambia cut ties with Iran in 2010 after Nigeria seized a shipment of weapons from Iran to The Gambia, which was falsely labeled as building materials. Iran insisted that the shipment complied with international law, but The Gambia denied being the intended recipient of the weapons. In 2013, an alleged Iranian Revolutionary Guard member and a Nigerian national were sentenced to five years in jail each over the arms shipment.
