Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine accused the US of worsening relations between the countries, according to his interview with a US newspaper.
Zeine noted that US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Fee, during a visit in March, urged Niger's new authorities to refrain from engaging with Iran and Russia in ways undesirable to Washington if it wanted to maintain security ties with the US.
She also threatened Niger with sanctions if the country went ahead with a deal for the sale of uranium to Iran, as per the interview.
"When she finished, I said, 'Madame, I am going to summarize in two points what you have said,' First, you have come here to threaten us in our country. That is unacceptable. And you have come here to tell us with whom we can have relationships, which is also unacceptable. And you have done it all with a condescending tone and a lack of respect," the prime minister was quoted by the media as saying.
In March, Niger decided to withdraw from a military agreement with the US. Following this, discussions on the "orderly withdrawal" of the American troops from the West African country began. On Friday, a US defense official revealed that the US would finalize the details of the pullout of its troops "in the coming days."
Chad, like Niger, also requested the departure of US forces from its territory. On May 1, a US defense official disclosed that 60 military personnel had been transferred from Chad to Germany as part of a security cooperation reassessment between the two nations.