Kuwait City: Kuwait last night rejected a statement by the Iranian embassy concerning a terror cell with alleged links to Tehran.
Expressing regret, the Foreign Ministry said the embassy was ignoring basic diplomatic norms.
An official source emphasised that such norms require resorting to official channels of communication among governments when seeking information regarding a specific issue, not going to the public media instead, said Kuwait News Agency.
“The statement regrettably ignored the official Kuwaiti government’s stance on the issue about which the Kuwaiti Cabinet had made an official statement stressing the need not to pass judgement before the Kuwaiti court decides on the case,” the source said.
“The decision by the public prosecutor to issue a gag order against publishing any news regarding the Abdeli cell shows Kuwait’s keenness not to have the issue discussed in public at this time for fear of its negative impact on the case, thereby harming it, and at the same time to ensure total fairness,” the source said.
Earlier, the Iranian Embassy in Kuwait had slammed Kuwait’s media outlets for reports on relationship between Tehran and a group of individuals who have recently been detained by Kuwait’s judicial authorities on charges of spying for Iran and Hizbollah.
The Iranian embassy complained that the report has been published in the Kuwaiti media before any official announcement and contact with Iranian bodies.
On Tuesday, Kuwait charged 24 people, including one Iranian, with “spying for... Iran and Hizbollah to carry out aggressive acts against the State of Kuwait” by smuggling in and assembling explosives, as well as possessing firearms and ammunition.
Kuwait’s lower court is scheduled to try the alleged cell on September 15.
Meanwhile, a number of Kuwaiti MPs have called on the government to take diplomatic action against Iran over its alleged involvement in the case.
Islamist MP Homoud Al Hamdan called for “severing diplomatic ties with Iran and reducing the number of the Iranian community in the country,” where about 50,000 Iranians work.
Head of parliament’s legal panel, Mubarak Al Harees, called on the government to classify the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hizbollah as “a terrorist organisation.”
On Sunday, parliamentary foreign relations panel chairman Hamad Al Harashani described Iran as the “true enemy” of Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states and said it sought “to spread chaos” in the region.
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