When I cracked open the dawn of Friday, June 13,  2025, the airwaves were already sizzling with news that Israel had unleashed precision fire on Iran’s nuclear laboratories, prized scientists, and senior military commanders, just as my son in the United States had eerily foreseen a few days earlier.

Since that first thunderclap, the campaign has widened to Iran’s colossal South Pars gas field, the beating heart of global Liquefied Natural Gas forecasts. Tehran, branding the raid “an existential economic assault,” replied with a hail of missiles aimed at Israeli depots in Haifa. By Saturday night, the Islamic Republic had yanked itself out of the sixth round of U.S.–Iran nuclear talks slated for Sunday in Moscow, slamming the door on what little optimism still flickered.

Only a week ago, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed  Abbas  Araghchi spoke of “meaningful progress.” That rhetoric evaporated with the first bomb’s blasting echo. Now the Moscow channel lies cold and silent, a diplomatic stone coffin. Washington only added to the confusion when Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists Israel acted alone, while President Trump hints at prior White House consent. Such public whiplash corrodes U.S. credibility and shrinks every corridor for de‑escalation.

South Pars is no local gas station; it props up forward‑looking energy projections from Asia to Europe. Experts warn the site’s prolonged disruption could trigger a 1970s‑style cocktail of inflation and recession, slumpflation’s ugly cousin with a sharper bite.

Amid this turbulence, The Gambia finds itself occupying the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) chair, a seat that has suddenly become hotter than a blazing furnace. Iran is not a fringe member; it is woven into the OIC’s mosaic. Logic dictates Banjul should at least craft a measured appeal for restraint, or better still, marshal ECOWAS and the African Union so Africa’s voice echoes through any global response.

Instead, our Foreign Affairs Ministry is trumpeting Dr. Mamadou Tangara’s upcoming UN address on Thursday, June 19, an eloquent retrospective on Yahya Jammeh’s dictatorship. Introspection is healthy, but dwelling on yesterday’s autocracy while today’s inferno scorches an OIC member state borders on strategic negligence.

The late Vice‑President Badara Joof once grieved, “I’m not sure we even have a foreign policy; and if we do, it’s dormant.” His words now boom like a cathedral bell; what is our policy as OIC chair while Israel and Iran trade missiles and sabotage pipelines?

Yes, silence can be tactical but today, it feels timid. As chair, The Gambia holds a rare megaphone to condemn strikes on civilian and economic infrastructure, call for an immediate cease‑fire under neutral auspices, offer Banjul, or any OIC venue, for shuttle diplomacy alongside the UN, ECOWAS, and the AU.

Skipping those steps would indeed amount to our stewardship slipping from substantive to ceremonial. Just imagine Dr. Tangara declaring; “as Chair of the OIC The Gambia urges Iran and Israel to halt further hostilities, respect humanitarian law, and accept an OIC‑facilitated dialogue crafted in coordination with ECOWAS, the African Union, and the United Nations.”

One paragraph of that calibre would propel us from seat‑warmers to statesmen.

Israel’s expanding theatre of operations, coupled with Tehran’s abrupt walk‑out from the talks, has thrust a once‑simmering dispute onto the lip of a geopolitical volcano. Whether the sparks ignite a region‑wide blaze now rests on the willingness of respected interlocutors—foremost the current OIC Chair—to stride into the breach and rekindle dialogue before tempers erupt.

Here, The Gambia possesses both the moral anchor and the diplomatic mandate to act. As Banjul stands at the helm of the OIC, the nation turns to Foreign Minister Hon. Dr. Mamadou Tangara for the steady hand and public reassurance that many of his cabinet colleagues readily provide in times of crisis. The vital task of enlightening the citizenry on this subject cannot, indeed must not, be left for the capable Information Minister Dr. Ismaila Ceesay to shoulder alone.

Therefore, I have respectful suggestion to Peter Gomez: given that his Coffee Time microphone resonates across the country and beyond, and that cabinet ministers readily appear on his program when crises erupt, why should Dr. Mamadou Tangara be the exception? Could he persuade him to enter the studio and outline his strategy for addressing this ongoing firestorm in the Middle East? Especially now, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly hints that the ultimate goal may be “comprehensive regime change” in Tehran. The Gambian public deserves to hear how our Foreign Ministry intends to leverage the OIC chairmanship to calm tensions, uphold international law, and safeguard regional stability.