Iran has firmly rejected Morocco’s allegation of ties between Tehran’s Embassy in Algeria and the Polisario Front, a Western Sahara separatist movement.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Wednesday that there is no cooperation between the Iranian diplomatic mission in Algiers and the Algeria-backed movement.
On Tuesday, Morocco cut its diplomatic relations with Iran, with its Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita accusing Tehran and Lebanon’s resistance movement Hezbollah of training and arming Polisario members via the Iranian Embassy in Algeria.
He also claimed that severing ties with Iran came “in response to Iran’s involvement, through Hezbollah, in allying itself with the Polisario over the past two years in order to target the security and higher interests of Morocco.”
Qassemi described Bourita’s accusations as “completely baseless, far from reality and wrong.”
“We need to clearly emphasize once again that one of the most fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s foreign policy in its relations with other governments and countries in the world has been and will continue to be deep respect for their sovereignty and security as well as non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states.”
Hezbollah also denied Rabat’s accusation, saying in a statement that Morocco had decided to cut ties with Iran under “American, Israeli and Saudi pressure.”
Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 and considers it the country’s “southern province.”
Rabat maintains that Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is an integral part of the kingdom, while the Polisario Front demands a referendum on self-determination.