Iranian Foreign Minister Monouchehr Mottaki on Saturday said Tehran found Moroccos decision to sever ties with the Islamic republic in a spat over Bahrain both surprising and questionable. On Friday, Rabat announced it was cutting ties with Tehran, resurrecting a row sparked by a senior Iranian official who questioned Bahrains sovereignty.
"The action by the Morocco government is surprising and questionable," Mottaki told reporters. Moroccos decision followed Rabats express backing for Bahrain - despite Iran moving to patch up their differences - with Rabat accusing Tehran of seeking to impose Shiite Muslim ideology on the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab kingdom. A prominent member of Irans powerful Expediency Council, Ali Akbar Nateq Nuri, said on February 20 that Bahrain used to be Irans 14th province and that it had a representative in the Iranian parliament.
Having touched a raw nerve in Bahrain - which itself protested to Tehran - and among Arab nations, Iran moved to try to defuse the spat which threatened a major bilateral gas deal, by saying it respects Bahraini sovereignty. However, after Moroccos King Mohammed VI sent his foreign minister to Bahrain bearing a message of support for its ruler King Hamad, Iran protested by calling in Rabats representative in Tehran.
Moroccos move to end diplomatic relations came nine days after Rabat recalled its charge daffaires from Tehran for consultations over what it termed "inopportune expressions." Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri also told the Iranian ambassador to Rabat, Vahid Ahmadi, that support for Bahrain, which hosts the US Navys Fifth Fleet in the Gulf, was based on the latters "attachment to international law," according to a Moroccan diplomatic source.
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