Morocco severs ties with Iran over support for Polisario independence fighters Tuesday May 01,2018

Morocco has severed diplomatic ties with Iran over Tehran's support for the Polisario Front, a Western Sahara independence movement, the Moroccan foreign minister said on Tuesday May 01,2018

Morocco has claimed Western Sahara since colonial power Spain left in 1975. But Polisario fought a guerrilla war for independence for the Sahrawi people until a United Nations-backed ceasefire in 1991, monitored by UN peacekeepers.

Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita accused Iran and its Lebanese Shiite ally,Hezbollah, of training and arming Polisario fighters via the Iranian embassy in Algeria.

"This month Hezbollah sent (surface-to-air) SAM9, SAM11 and Strela missiles to the Polisario with the connivance of Iran’s embassy in Algiers," he told 

There was no immediate Iranian reaction to the Moroccan move or accusation. Iran has backed Polisario in the past.