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Members of the UK parliament have reiterated concerns about Iran-Polisario collusion, with several MPs stressing the importance of a joint action from the international community to address security threats in the increasingly fragile Sahelo-Saharan region.
British MP James Dubbdrige warned the government of Iran’s involvement in supplying the Polisario Front with military equipment, including drones.
“May I ask the Foreign Secretary to look at Iran’s activities elsewhere? He has already mentioned the provision of Russian drones. I hear rumors that Iran has also provided drones to the Polisario in southern Algeria, which could destabilize a very fragile peace with the Moroccans,” he said, referencing Morocco’s southern provinces in Western Sahara region.
He also accused Iran of being involved in different other places, including Tigray and South Sudan. OF reports of Iran’s presence in Africa, the British MP said that the Iranian regime is “destabilizing a whole continent as a lever of political power.”
In response to the MPs’ concerns, the UN’s Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, James Cleverly, said Iran’s “malign activities” are “not restricted to nearby regions.”
He also accused Iran of being involved in providing military equipment to “militia groups and other military groups in the region and across Africa.”
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Addressing MP James Duddridge’s query, Cleverly stressed: “I can reassure him that we will take that into consideration when it comes to my future sanctions response that we have towards the Iranian regime.”
Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Iran in May 2018, accusing the Iranian government of direct collusion with the Polisario Front through Iran’s proxy Hezbollah to undermine Moroccan security.
The North African country specifically accused Iranian proxy Hezbollah of arming and training elements of the separatist front.
While the leadership of both the Polisario Front and Hezbollah strongly denied what they described as baseless accusations, Morocco said it had an extensive file of detailed reports and satellite images of meetings Hezbollah and Polisario officials held in Algeria.
Bourita said in a series of interviews that the files contained data on the venues and dates of the meetings, as well as the names of the people who arranged for and attended the meeting.
After years of frozen relations between Rabat and Tehran, however, a few developments have led some observers and reports have spoken of Iran’s apparent readiness to restore diplomatic ties with Morocco.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amir Abdolhahian said in June: “We also welcome the development of relations and the normalization of ties with other regional and global Islamic countries, including the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Muslim and brotherly country of Morocco.”
