Kuwait summoned Iran’s envoy in protest on Wednesday after Tehran denied that a citizen sentenced to death in Kuwait was involved in an assassination plot against senior government officials.
Earlier this week, two Kuwaiti judicial sources told AFP that the Gulf state had condemned three Shiite men to death for collaborating with Iran in a plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Fahd Yousef; and for joining Hezbollah.
The Iranian embassy in Kuwait said earlier on Wednesday it “rejects the Kuwaiti government’s claims that an Iranian citizen was involved in the assassination of figures or any other act that could harm Kuwait’s national security.”
It added that the person had been away from Kuwait for 10 years.
It said it regretted “the negative attitude towards Iran, one of its manifestations being the repeated repetition of fragile and boring scenarios of Iranian interference in Kuwaiti affairs”.
In response, Kuwait summoned Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Tutunji over the statement, which it said “constitutes a blatant interference in Kuwait’s internal affairs and violates Kuwait’s sovereignty and judicial independence.”
Abdulredha Haydar Dahqani was among those sentenced to death, judicial sources told AFP.
Dahqani, an Iranian national, was sentenced to death in 2016 after a trial in absentia along with 25 Kuwaitis. He was convicted of espionage and planning attacks for Iran.
Sources said the other was Hussein Abdallah al-Maatouq, a religious figure and secretary-general of the National Islamic League, the most influential Shiite movement in Kuwait.
CBS/AFP