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Kuwait summons Iranian ambassador over detained citizens

14 November 2011 17:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Kuwait summoned the Iranian ambassador Monday after Tehran arrested two Kuwaitis on allegation of espionage and urged Iran to release the detainees, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled Suliman Al- Jaralla demanded immediate release of the two Kuwaitis during his meeting with Iranian Ambassador Rouhullah Qahremani Chabok, according to the official KUNA news agency.

Iran’s Al-Alam TV reported Sunday that Iran’s security guards detained the two Kuwaitis in the southwestern city of Abadan and that they had been carrying some espionage equipment.

Kuwait denied the two arrested Kuwaitis, Adel Al-Yahya and Raed Al-Majid, were spies, saying that they had been granted visas by Iranian authority to enter the country on a social program for a private Kuwaiti TV channel.

Kuwait said last May that it busted an espionage cell working for Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which was denied by Tehran.

The relations between the two countries soured after a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced to death two Iranians and one Kuwaiti convicted of spying in March.

The sentence led to tit-for-tat expulsions of the ambassadors and diplomats, who returned to their posts two months later after bilateral efforts to ease tensions.

Gulf Arab states, ruled by Sunni monarchies, accused Iran, a Shi’ite state, of meddling in their internal affairs after Iran opposed the move by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to sent troops to Bahrain in March to help quell protests.