US warned Sri Lanka over arms purchases from Iran, WikiLeaks cable reveals

The United States has warned Sri Lanka to be cautious about its close trade relationship with Iran, and told the Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal and the then Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Palitha Kohona that any arms purchases from Iran would be illegal under a UN resolution.


In a secret cable from the U.S. Embassy in Colombo dated November 2, 2007, the U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Deputy Chief of Mission told the Governor of the Central Bank and the Foreign Secretary, respectively, that Sri Lanka should be cautious about deepening its trade relationship with Iran, referring to an advisory issued by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

According to secret cable leaked to London's The Telegraph newspaper by WikiLeaks, the Ambassador has told Cabraal that the United States urged Sri Lanka "to be very scrupulous" in entering into additional trade or investment deals with Iran.

Both Governor Cabraal and Secretary Kohona had asserted that Sri Lanka does not intend to purchase arms from Iran and the trip by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in November 2007 would be focused on trade and investment.

However, a well-connected embassy source quoting Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe had told the U.S. diplomats that Sri Lanka would try to negotiate a contract for $200 million worth of oil from Iran at below-market prices, in exchange for which Sri Lanka would order a significant quantity of arms.

The Embassy source has said that Minister Samarasinghe explicitly noted that the Sri Lankan government hopes the transaction would "send the U.S. a message."