KUWAIT: Kuwait's foreign minister accused Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards of being behind a spy cell in the Gulf Arab state and said three Iranian diplomats would be expelled, according to a newspaper report. The remarks by Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah, published by the Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas, came after a Kuwaiti court sentenced three men to death for being part of an alleged Iranian spy ring in a case that has strained relations between Kuwait and Tehran. “Kuwait only expresses its goodwill toward ... its neighbor Iran, but in return we see that the Revolutionary Guards planted this cell to target the security of Kuwait,” Sheikh Mohammad said, according to an advance copy of an article to be published Thursday, obtained by Reuters. “We have withdrawn our ambassador in Tehran ... for consultation and Iran's charge d'affaires was summoned and told of the need to dispose of (three) diplomats named in connection with the spy network,” Sheikh Mohammad was quoted as saying. The men sentenced to death were two Iranians and a Kuwaiti, Al-Qabas said on its website. Kuwaiti media said in May 2010 that authorities had detained Kuwaitis and foreigners suspected of spying for Iran. Media reports said they were accused of gathering information on Kuwaiti and US military sites for Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Tehran denied the allegations last year. The two sides have improved ties which soured during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war because of Kuwait's financial backing for Baghdad's war effort.
