Morocco has severed diplomatic ties with Iran over Tehran's alleged support for the Polisario Front, a Western Sahara independence movement.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on May 1 accused Iran and its Lebanese Shi'ite ally, Hizballah, of training and arming Polisario fighters with surface-to-air missiles through the Iranian embassy in Algeria since 2016.
Bourita said he just returned from Iran, where he personally informed his Iranian counterpart of the decision to end ties. Morocco's ambassador already has departed Tehran, while the Iranian Embassy in Morocco will be closed "immediately," he said.
There was no immediate reaction from Iran, which has backed Polisario in the past.
Bourita said Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was "in shock" after their discussion.
Hizballah issued a statement denying that it armed Polisario and accusing Morocco of acting under "pressure" from the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
The Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony that Morocco annexed in 1975. Polisario fought a guerrilla war for independence until a United Nations-backed cease-fire was established in 1991.
Algeria, Morocco's neighbor, hosts camps for people displaced by the conflict, including members of Polisario, but denies giving military aid to the group.
The Western Sahara has effectively been split by an earthen wall separating territory controlled by Polisario and an area controlled by Morocco. There is a UN-mandated buffer zone between them, and UN peacekeepers patrol the region.
Morocco also cut diplomatic ties with Shi'a-led Iran in 2009 after accusing it of undermining Sunni rule in Bahrain, a Gulf Arab island that has a majority Shi'ite population.
Diplomatic relations were restored in 2014, but they were never strong. Rabat enjoys close ties with Tehran's regional rival, Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.
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