NIGERIAN MFA DENIES IRANIAN-NIGERIAN NUCLEAR DEAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001737 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W, INR/AA DOE FOR GEORGE PERSON E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/04/2018 TAGS: PARM KNNP PINR PINS KFPC ENRG ETTC MNUC KSTC IR, NI SUBJECT: NIGERIAN MFA DENIES IRANIAN-NIGERIAN NUCLEAR DEAL REF: PFLAUMER-SILSKI 8/29 E-MAIL Classified By: A/DCM Walter Pflaumer for reasons 1.4. (b & d). ¶1. (C) Rabiu Shehu (protect),Director of the Office of MFA Minister of State Alhaji Tijjani Kaura (who nominally headed the Nigerian delegation in talks with the Iranians), emphatically denied to PolOff on August 29 that Nigeria had entered into any sort of nuclear agreement or signed a memorandum of understanding on the subject with Iran. According to Shehu, the talks were the third session of the Nigeria-Iran joint commission (following earlier conferences in 2004 and 2006),a bilateral trade body. Shehu said most of the Nigerian participants came from the Ministry of Commerce; the Iranian Minister of Commerce led their delegation, but most other participants were mid-level ministry officials. ¶2. (C) According to Shehu (who wrote Kaura's speech),the Minister of State did not talk about nuclear issues and only attended the opening and closing ceremonies of the talks. He added that no Nigerian officials from the Ministry of Energy or any other Nigerian governmental bodies which deal with nuclear issues were involved in the discussions. He stressed that, notwithstanding press reports to the contrary, no/no agreements or even memoranda of understanding were signed which touched on nuclear issues. He said most of the talks dealt with customs, trade and immigration. When his attention was drawn to the press reports, he seemed surprised, and characterized them as possibly "a publicity stunt" by the Iranians. ¶3. (C) PolOff also spoke with MFA First UN Division Director Maria Laose (protect) who is responsible for nuclear non-proliferation issues. Laose (who was formerly part of the Nigerian mission to the IAEA and recently attended the Proliferation Security Initiative Conference in Washington) seemed genuinely surprised and even alarmed when told about the press reports. She said she knew nothing about any such agreement, and was well aware of the implications signing one would have, given the sanctions in place against Iran. ¶4. (C) Comment: We can certainly not exclude that the subject of nuclear energy was discussed in the course of these discussions, and will continue to press the GON for full details on what was, or was not, agreed to in the talks. EconCouns is scheduled to meet with the Nigerian Commerce Minister this evening, and will try to sound him out on what was discussed. We also note that the GON has made no secret of its interest in nuclear power as a minor part of its long-term/long-term master plan for power generation; the Nigerians raised the issue in June with a visiting French delegation as well. That said, we strongly suspect that there is less here than meets the eye. End comment. PIASCIK