If the argument has an oddly familiar ring, it is because uranium — or rather the fear of it — was a key part of the justification by the George W. Bush Administration (and by U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair) for invading Iraq in 2003.
Uranium mining operation in Jabiluka, northern Australia. Credit: NT News
Al-Shabaab does not have the capability to extract and export uranium, and if it did it would be impossible to sell it to Iran owing to the existing international framework which restricts uranium transfers to Iran, a nuclear researcher has said terming Somalia’s claims ‘a gross distortion’.
Writing in the US based policy research centre, Stimson, Cindy Vestergard poked holes on the letter addressed to the US ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz noting it was akin to the Weapons of Mass Destruction theory advanced by former US president George W. Bush and former UK Premier Tony Blair to push for the war in Iraq.
“The letter’s claim that Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group allied to al-Qaeda, is “strip mining triuranium octoxide” from “captured critical surface exposed uranium deposits in the Galmudug region” would suppose first that Al-Shabaab has an interest in excavating the land for uranium and secondly has the large industrial equipment, dump trucks, solvents and know-how to break and crush ore then extract and separate out uranium, and process it into a concentrate form for transport,” said Vestergard.
No extremist group, the researcher said is known to have the resources for a mining operation, even if taking over an-already operational mine, nor would such an operation go unnoticed by intelligence agencies.
In the letter addressed to the US, Foreign Minister Yusuf Garaad said Al-Shabaab was not only extracting uranium but also planning to sell it to Iran escalating threat to the security of Somalia and the globe.
“Unlike past situations that required external intervention, the issue communicated today presents a problem for the larger global community and will not be constrained within the borders of our recovering country. This issue can be summed up in a single word: uranium,” the minister said in a letter dated August 11, 2017.
The minister added Al-Shabaab forces had captured critical surface exposed uranium deposits in the Galmudug region and are strip mining triuranium octoxide for transport to Iran.
But Vestergard said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached by Iran and six other powers in July 2015 made it impossible for any transfers of uranimum to Iran without due channels. The Action Plan monitors all transfer trade and/or domestic production of uranium ore concentrates.
“All such activities are to be approved by the Security Council, including any acquisitions by Iran of an interest in a commercial activity in another State involving uranium mining or production of nuclear materials,” the researcher who has conducted research on global governance of natural uranium in Australia, Canada and Kazakstan argued.
