Iran denies Moroccan claims of Hezbollah-Polisario axis

TEHRAN (AA) - Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday "strongly" dismissed Moroccan accusations of cooperation between the Iranian embassy in Algiers and the separatist Polisario Front.

“Non-interference in other countries' internal affairs is -- and will remain -- a pillar of Iran’s foreign policy,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasimi as saying.

Qasimi described the claims -- articulated recently by the Moroccan foreign minister -- as “false”.

Earlier Wednesday, IRNA reported that Iran’s embassy in Algiers had dismissed suggestions that it had “any relation” with the Polisario Front, which demands independence of Morocco’s Western Sahara region.

On Tuesday, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said his country had severed ties with Tehran over alleged ties between Lebanon’s Hezbollah -- a close ally of Iran -- and the Polisario Front.

Speaking to reporters in Rabat, Bourita also said that Morocco had decided to close its embassy in Tehran and had asked Iran's ambassador to leave the country.

He attributed the move to “the engagement of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah in a relationship” with the Polisario Front, which, he said, “threatens our country’s security and stability”.

Bourita went on to allege that Morocco had “evidence” that Hezbollah was providing funds to the Algeria-backed separatist movement.

“Rabat also has information that Iranian diplomats at the embassy in Algiers have facilitated meetings between Hezbollah and Polisario leaders,” he said.

What’s more, Hezbollah has provided the separatist group with weapons, Bourita asserted, claiming the relationship between the two movements had begun in late 2016.

Occupied by Spain until 1975, Western Sahara -- a large territory in southern Morocco -- has remained the subject of dispute between Rabat and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front for more than four decades.

Since the early 1970s, the Polisario Front, a self-proclaimed national liberation movement, has demanded an independent state in Western Sahara.

Rabat, for its part, says the region is an integral part of Morocco. It has nevertheless proposed a system by which Western Sahara might enjoy some autonomy while formally remaining under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Polisario Front, meanwhile, wants to see a popular referendum held in Western Sahara to decide the region’s political fate.