Reuters: Morocco has recalled its envoy to Iran, Morocco's news agency MAP said Wednesday, after an Iranian official questioned Bahrain's sovereignty provoking an outcry in much of the Sunni Muslim word.
RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco has recalled its envoy to Iran, Morocco's news agency MAP said Wednesday, after an Iranian official questioned Bahrain's sovereignty provoking an outcry in much of the Sunni Muslim word.
According to media reports, Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said earlier this month that Iran had sovereignty over the kingdom.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri summoned Iran's ambassador Vahid Ahmadi to express his displeasure.
"(Fihri) expressed its strong rejection of some inappropriate language contained in the communique carried by Iranian news agency IRNA," said MAP, quoting from a foreign ministry statement.
Fihri also told Ahmadi he was astonished that Iran's foreign ministry called Morocco's charge d'affaires to Tehran to a meeting over the matter, saying Morocco had been "singled out."
"Morocco is surprised by such peculiar treatment by the Iranian authorities over this subject and is questioning the real motives behind an official communique," the ministry said, adding Morocco's envoy was called home for one week in protest.
(Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
