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 on 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“We have withdrawn our ambassador in Tehran ...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.
OPEC-member Kuwait hosts Camp Arifjan, a vast US logistics base in the desert south of the capital which serves as a staging post for US forces being deployed in Iraq.
The United States has myriad air and naval installations in Gulf Arab states, some of which are little more than 200 km (120 miles) from Iran’s coast. The US Central Command keeps its forward headquarters in Qatar and Bahrain hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
