Tehran summons Kuwait s charge d affaires amid row

Teheran July 21 (IANS/AKI) Iran s foreign ministry has summoned Kuwait s charge d affaires after the Gulf state closed the Iranian cultural military and trade offices and ordered the number of Iranian diplomats there to be cut amid a spying row the semi-official news agency Fars reported on Thursday.

Kuwait had also decided to freeze any activities involving joint committees between the two countries state news agency KUNA reported citing a foreign ministry source. Last year Kuwait convicted 23 men -- one Iranian and the rest Kuwaiti -- of spying for Iran and Lebanese Shia Muslim militant group Hezbollah after a haul of guns and explosives was found during a raid of the so-called Abdali cell in 2015. Some of the suspects in the Abdali case who were acquitted on appeal but re-convicted by Kuwait s Supreme Court last month are on the run and have allegedly escaped to Iran. The row comes as Kuwait is trying to mediate an end to the Gulf s worst diplomatic crisis in years after Saudi Arabia and its allies cut ties with Qatar over accusations it is too close to Iran and is funding Islamic extremists. --IANS qd/