Kuwait asks Iran to reduce diplomats in embassy

By Mohamed Abdul-Ghaffar

KUWAIT CITY (AA) - Kuwait on Thursday called for a reduction in the number of Iranian diplomats working in its embassy and closed down the Iranian cultural mission in the country.

The state-run Kuwait News Agency announced in a brief statement that the Iranian ambassador in Kuwait, Ali-Reza Enayati, had been informed of the decision.

The decision follows a court ruling last month which overturned the death sentence of a man convicted in the 2015 Abdali cell case, when Kuwaiti forces found a cache of weapons in a farmhouse on the outskirts of Kuwait City.

Kuwait alleged the cell belonged to an Iranian militant group which wanted to destabilize the oil-rich Gulf country. Iran denies the charges.

The new diplomatic arrangement will “preserve Kuwaiti rights”, Mohammed Abdullah al-Mubarak al-Sabah, Kuwait’s minister of state for cabinet affairs, said in a statement.

Diplomatic sources told Anadolu Agency that Kuwait will reduce the number of Iranian diplomats in the country from the present 14 to nine.

It was not possible to get immediate comment from Iranian officials.

On Wednesday, Kuwait’s Interior Ministry published photos of 16 people who were sentenced in absentia by a court in the Abdali cell case.

In a statement earlier this week, the ministry said 14 convicts had fled to Iran in a speedboat.