Kuwait on Thursday expelled Iranian diplomats and closed some embassy missions after the emirate’s top court convicted a “terror” cell of links to the Islamic republic, the foreign ministry said.
The action was taken after a Supreme Court ruling last month said “Iranian sides helped and supported the cell members,” the ministry said in a statement.
A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said around 15 diplomats were ordered to leave. Kuwait also ordered the closure of the Iranian “military, cultural and trade” missions, the official said. It was not immediately known if the Iranian ambassador is among the diplomats ordered to leave.
Last month Kuwait’s Supreme Court sentenced the mastermind of the cell to life in jail and condemned 20 others to various prison terms for alleged links with Iran and Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, and plotting terror attacks in Kuwait. State minister for Cabinet affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah, who is also acting information minister, confirmed Kuwait had taken diplomatic action against Iran.
“Following the supreme court ruling on the case... the government of Kuwait has decided to take measures, in accordance with diplomatic norms and the Vienna Convention, towards its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Sheikh Mohammad said.
