TEHRAN, July 20, YJC - Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Kuwaiti charge d'affaires following shutdown of Iranian cultural office in Kuwait and reducing the number of Iranian diplomats in the Arab country.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Kuwait has already summoned Iranian Envoy Alireza Enayati to officially inform Iran of reducing the number of Iranian diplomats.
Some Arab media said that Kuwait has called on Iran to reduce the number of diplomats from 19 to 4 and that the Iranian diplomats should leave Kuwait within 48 hours.
Kuwait has reportedly told the Iranian Embassy to reduce its diplomatic staff in the Persian Gulf state and close down some of its technical offices following a court ruling last year that implicated some Iranians in a spying case.
Citing a Foreign Ministry source, Kuwait’s official KUNA new agency reported Thursday that Kuwait City decided to freeze any activities involving joint committees between the two countries following the ruling by Kuwait’s top court in a case known as the “Abdali cell.”
Media reports earlier in the day also said Kuwait had shut down the office of Iran’s cultural attaché and reduced the number of Iranian diplomats in the country.
Reuters also quoted a Kuwaiti government official as saying on Thursday that Kuwait City has taken “actions” regarding its diplomatic relationship with Iran following the court ruling.
“The government of the state of Kuwait decided to take actions in accordance with diplomatic norms and in abidance with the Vienna conventions with regards to its relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” following the court ruling, acting Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak al-Sabah said.
In August 2015, Kuwait said it had busted the 26-member cell and seized arms, ammunition and explosives from them.
Kuwaiti courts convicted members of the so-called “Abdali cell” of working for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement. The defendants were also charged with possessing weapons, smuggling explosives, and planning "hostile actions" inside Kuwait.
They received sentences ranging from a few years in prison to, in one case, the death penalty, though the latter sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment.
The defendants were later acquitted on appeals and set free. Kuwait’s supreme court, however, overturned their acquittal and sentenced them to between five and 15 years in prison.