Nigeria Govt Summons Iranian Envoy Over Seized Weapons Saga Ajumogobia  Iran Has Agreed to Co-Operate With Investigation

The Federal Government has summoned Iran's ambassador to Nigeria, Hussein Abdullahi, over the arms shipment seized in Lagos last month, Reuters reported last night, quoting a Nigerian official and foreign diplomats.
Security agencies intercepted 13 containers in the main port of Lagos two weeks ago which were found to contain rocket launchers, grenades and other explosives and ammunition.

French-based shipping group CMA CGM later said the containers, which were labelled as building materials, had been loaded in Iran by a local trader.

"The Iranian ambassador has been summoned... and he is holding a meeting with the (Nigerian) foreign affairs minister," an official at the Foreign Ministry, who refused to be named, told the news agency. "Part of the agenda of the meeting is the issue of the shipment of explosives and the visit of the foreign affairs minister of Iran," the official further told Reuters.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki promised his government's full cooperation with an investigation into the saga, Nigeria's Foreign Minister Odein Ajumogobia disclosed after meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Abuja to discuss the shipment last night.
"I had a productive meeting with the Iranian foreign minister this evening and he has assured us of his government's co-operation in our ongoing investigation regarding the arms shipment," Ajumogobia told Reuters by telephone.
Diplomats in New York said Iran would appear to be in breach of the United Nations sanctions regime, which forbids it from exporting any kind of weapons directly or indirectly, if the seized weapons were originally loaded on its territory.

But they said it was difficult to assess the case because Nigeria had not yet notified the U.N. Security Council's Iran sanctions committee about the seizure.

An official at the Iranian embassy in Abuja confirmed to Reuters that Mottaki was in Nigeria but declined to comment further.
A diplomat with access to intelligence on Iran told Reuters in New York Mottaki had gone to Abuja to discuss the seized arms and to secure permission from the Nigerians to bring two Iranians linked to the shipment back to Tehran.
The diplomat, who spoke on condition that neither his name nor nationality be identified, said the two Iranians were at the Iranian embassy in Abuja and that Tehran appeared reluctant to have them questioned by Nigerian authorities.
Meanwhile, Nigerian intelligence officials and diplomats have concluded that the Iranian government was behind a secret shipment of weapons discovered last month in shipping containers, according to internal documents seen yesterday by The Associated Press (AP).

Immediately after the arms seizure, Israeli officials accused Iran of trying to sneak the shipment into the Gaza Strip, but the State Security Service (SSS) now believes the arms were imported by some politicians to destabilise the country if they lose in the general election.

Contacted by phone by AP, the Iranian Ambassador declined to immediately discuss the allegations, saying he had had a meeting with Nigerian officials about the same issues. Previously, Abdullahi said there is no clear evidence linking his government to the weapons.
Investigators who followed a paper trail learned that Iran's foreign ministry endorsed a Nigerian visa application for one of the two Iranians who allegedly shipped the weapons, saying he would work at the Iranian Embassy in Abuja.
The Nigerian government reports, seen by an AP reporter, identify Iranians Azimi Agajany and Sayed Akbar Tahmaesebi as the men who organized the shipment through a Tehran-based company called International Trading and General Construction.
The reports said Agajany received a visa to travel to Nigeria after getting an endorsement from Sheikh Ali Abbas Othman, also known as Abbas Jega, a Nigerian who worked for Radio Tehran's Hausa language service and studied in Iran.

Jega has been arrested by Nigeria's SSS, a Nigerian government official told the AP.

Tahmaesebi received his visa after Nigerian authorities received a letter of recommendation from Iran's foreign ministry that said he would "provide administrative support" at its Abuja embassy, the reports said.
The two Iranians remain at large.
"We strongly believe they are hiding in the embassy but we cannot prove it," the Nigerian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the reports. Embassies are considered to be sovereign territory, not subject to searches by the host country.
Displaying a lack of knowledge about Nigeria's geography, Agajany initially wanted the consignments shipped to Abuja, the documents said.
When Agajany was told there is no port in Abuja, which lies hundreds of miles (kilometres) from the coast, he came up with Lagos as the destination.

CMA CGM said one of its cargo ships picked up the shipping containers from Bandar Abbas, a port in southern Iran. The company said the shipment, which stopped in Mumbai's port before heading to Lagos, had been labelled as "packages of glass wool and pallets of stone".
The containers sat at Lagos' busy Apapa port from July until October 26, when Nigerian security agents carried out a raid and discovered the weapons inside.
By shipping arms to the country, Iran may be attempting to "tweak" Western powers by showing it can influence affairs in a country vital to U.S. oil supplies, said David Bender, a Washington-based analyst who studies Iran for the Eurasia Group.