Is it a storm in a tea-cup? Or is it an expansion of the Saudi Sultanate? Has Maldives become a Saudi protectorate? 

The tiny state of Maldives’ decision to sever diplomatic ties with Iran on Tuesday has sent ‘shockwaves across South Asia’ says a Colombo newspaper, but Tehran has chosen to snub the Indian Ocean nation by maintaining diplomatic silence.

The Foreign Ministry in Tehran has not commented on the Maldives’s move. But analysts see this as being linked to President Abdulla Yameen’s decision to back Saudi Arabia in its cold war with  rival Iran.

The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1975, but neither has its diplomatic mission in the other’s country.

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 about-turn in less than three weeks after this ceremony has raised diplomatic eyebrows in South Asia.

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”.

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.

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. Swaraj had expressed New Delhi’s concern over the arrest of former President Nasheed.

  Maldives, President Abdulla Yameen, Saudi Arabia, South Asia, Tehran