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Shock in South Asia as Maldives severs ties with Iran
The Maldives’ decision to sever diplomatic ties with Iran on Tuesday has sent shockwaves across South Asia, but Teheran has chosen to snub the Indian Ocean nation by maintaining diplomatic silence.
Neither the Foreign Ministry in Teheran nor the Iranian embassy in Colombo has commented on the Maldives’s move, which many analysts see as being linked to President Abdulla Yameen’s decision to back Saudi Arabia in its cold war with regional rival Iran.
Iranian embassy officials here remained tightlipped when asked to comment while a Maldivian High Commission official said he had nothing to say other than what the Maldivian Foreign Ministry had already said. The Maldivian Foreign Ministry in a statement on Tuesday said Iranian policies in West Asia were “detrimental to peace and security in the region” and it was severing ties with Teheran because stability in the Gulf was “also linked to stability, peace and security of the Maldives”.
“The Islamic Summit held last month in Turkey called on Iran to pursue a policy based on the principle of ‘good neighbourliness, non-interference in domestic affairs, respect for their independence and territorial sovereignty, [and] resolving differences by peaceful means in accordance with OIC and the UN Charters,” the statement said.
In response, angry Iranians on social media commented that the Maldivian move did not hurt Iran the least and Teheran did not have to make a hue and cry over an insignificant action of a Saudi client state.
Questioning the move, former Maldivian President Mohammed Nasheed, who is in London for medical treatment, in a twitter message said, “Severing ties with Iran is concerning. #Maldives Govt’s decision brings contentious issues to our region, risking Indian Ocean stability.”
Mr. Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party, expressing deep concern, said, “This kind of irrational adventurism in foreign policy decisions will have serious negative repercussions on the security of the Maldives.”
It was only last month, Iran’s ambassador Mohammed Zaeri Amirani, who is concurrently accredited to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, presented his credentials to President Yameen.
An April 24 report posted on the Maldivian President’s website said President Yameen congratulated Ambassador Amirani on the start of his term and expressed hope and confidence that relations between the Maldives and Iran would continue to strengthen in the future.
The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1975, but neither has its diplomatic mission in the other’s country.
The about-turn in less than three weeks after this ceremony has raised diplomatic eyebrows in South Asia.
In January this year, Bahrain, Sudan and Djibouti severed ties with Iran, following Saudi Arabia’s decision to end diplomatic relations with Iran after crowds — angry over the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia — attacked the Saudi embassy in Teheran.
Several other Saudi allies scaled down their diplomatic relations with Iran. Saudi Arabia, which opened its embassy in the Maldives last year, has recently stepped up financial assistance to the Maldives. Apart from investments, it has pledged to fund a US$ 50 million military housing project in the archipelago. Mr. Yameen’s government has also sought US$ 100 million from Riyadh for an expansion of its main airport.
Backed by Saudi Arabia and China, the Yameen administration has of late been adopting more assertive diplomacy in dealing with even its South Asian neighbours. In October last year, it found courage to tell off Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj that Maldives would not tolerate foreign interference in domestic issues. Ms. Swaraja had expressed New Delhi’s concern over the arrest of former President Nasheed.
In November last year, the Maldives was unusually uncooperative when Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry sought information regarding the arrest of a Sri Lankan accused of plotting to kill President Yameen.