Severing Ties with Iran, a ‘Sovereign Decision’- Morocco Says

Morocco’s foreign ministry said that severing diplomatic ties with Iran is a sovereign decision that was not taken under whatsoever influence of any country.

“After the Kingdom of Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran, some parties lacking arguments, alleged that the Kingdom took such a decision under pressure from some countries,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It added that Morocco sent its ambassador to Iran in 2016 at a time Tehran was in crisis with Arab and Western states.

The parties that spread such fallacies about Morocco’s sovereign decision had better answer the irrefutable proofs presented by the Moroccan diplomacy showing stark involvement of Hezbollah in backing militarily the Polisario separatists in connivance with Iran’s embassy in Algiers, said the statement.

In response to Polisario’s claims that cutting ties with Iran is a reaction to the adoption by Security Council of resolution 2414, the statement said the resolution strengthens Morocco’s stance and acknowledges the pre-eminence of its autonomy initiative to end the Sahara conflict.

The resolution echoed the position of the international community in line with Morocco’s stance in condemning the Polisario’s violations of the ceasefire, Morocco’s Foreign Ministry said.

“The connivance of the Polisario with terrorist groups raises questions and pushes the international community to take realistic positions in order to avert regional instability,” it said, adding that the same resolution urges the Polisario to withdraw from Guerguarat and Bir Lahlou, two localities east of the Morocco-built security wall in the Sahara buffer zone.

The statement made it clear that the decision to cut ties with Iran is not targeted at the Iranian or Lebanese peoples. The Foreign Ministry also extended thanks to the countries that have backed Morocco’s decision.