Moroccan King Severs Ties With Iran

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI cut diplomatic ties with Iran Friday, after an Iranian official recently made a statement over the Sunni-Shiite division in the Gulf State of Bahrain. king-mohammed-vi

The comments rattled the Middle East, which is growing fed up with Iran’s hard-line politics in recent years.

The King also criticized Iran for its efforts to spread its Shi’ite brand of Islam in Morocco, a move the Foreign Ministry said it saw as threat to the North African country’s moderate Sunni religious identity.

Sunni scholars in Morocco and elsewhere have denounced what they see as Iran’s efforts to convert Sunni Muslims to Shi’ism.

King Mohammed VI is the “commander of the believers” in the North African country, and the Foreign Ministry’s statement equated attacking Moroccan religious unity to challenging the monarch.

Morocco offered its “full support for the unity and territorial integrity of the brotherly Kingdom of Bahrain”, according to a Foreign Ministry statement last week. “Morocco is astonished by the odd treatment the kingdom has been subject to by Iranian authorities.”

Bahrain is ruled by a Sunni-led monarchial government, but many of its people follow Shi’ite Islam.

Morocco’s foreign ministry said efforts by Iran to spread Shi’ite Islam threatened Morocco’s Islamic unity and its identity built from the foundations of the moderate Sunni faith.

“This kind of organized and sustained actions constitute an intolerable interference in the kingdom’s domestic affairs and are contrary to the rules and ethics of diplomatic action,” the ministry said.

Morocco, which enjoyed warm ties with Iran under the Shah until he was deposed in 1979, only normalized its relations with Iran by exchanging envoys in the late 1990s.

The government has always been concerned over Iran’s role in the Sunni world since its Shi’ite Islamic revolution toppled the monarchy in Tehran.

Religious figures have warned of what they call the menace against the country’s spiritual security by Shi’ite conversion among Morocco’s 30 million people.