Morocco will sever diplomatic ties with Iran over what it claims Tehran’s support for the Polisario Front, the Moroccan foreign minister said on Tuesday.

The Iranian ambassador to Rabat will be expelled and its embassy closed down said foreign minister Nasser Bourita, who claimed Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah had been training the Polisario Front, which fights for independence for the region south of Morocco.

Hezbollah released a statement in which it denied accusations made by Morocco concerning the resistance movement's training and arming of the Polisario Front.

The statement added that Morocco had decided to cut ties with Iran under “American, Israeli and Saudi pressure.”

Morocco claimed Western Sahara after colonial Spain left, but Polisario fought a guerrilla war for independence for the Sahrawi people until a U.N.-backed ceasefire.

In April, Morocco asked neighbouring Algeria to reign in the Polisario fighters it hosts, accusing them of encroaching on a buffer zone separating Moroccan and Polisario-held parts of Western Sahara.