Kuwait Summons Iranian Envoy Over Assassination Plot Dispute
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Toutounji was summoned over a statement by Iran’s embassy rejecting allegations that an Iranian citizen had participated in a plot targeting Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Fahad al-Yousef.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Kuwait summoned Iran’s ambassador on Wednesday in protest over Tehran’s denial that an Iranian national sentenced to death in Kuwait was involved in an alleged plot to assassinate a senior government official.
Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry said Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Toutounji was summoned over a statement by Iran’s embassy rejecting allegations that an Iranian citizen had participated in a plot targeting Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Fahad al-Yousef.
The ministry said the Iranian statement constituted “blatant interference in the internal affairs of the State of Kuwait” and infringed on the country’s sovereignty and the independence of its judiciary.
Earlier this week, two Kuwaiti judicial sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that three Shia men had been sentenced to death for allegedly plotting to assassinate al-Yousef, collaborating with Iran, and belonging to Hezbollah.
Iran’s embassy rejected the allegations, saying it opposed Kuwait’s claims that an Iranian citizen had been involved in an assassination plot or any other activity that could threaten Kuwaiti national security.
The embassy added that the individual in question had been outside Kuwait for 10 years and criticized what it described as a negative approach toward Iran, including repeated allegations of Iranian interference in Kuwaiti affairs.
One of the men sentenced to death was identified as Abdulredha Haydar Dahqani, an Iranian national who was previously sentenced to death in 2016 after being tried in absentia alongside 25 Kuwaitis. He was convicted of spying for Iran and plotting attacks, according to the judicial sources.
Another defendant was Hussein Abdallah al-Maatouq, a religious dignitary and secretary-general of the National Islamic Alliance, described by the sources as Kuwait’s most influential Shia political movement.
The case comes amid heightened security concerns across the Gulf since the outbreak of the Middle East war in February. Kuwait and other Gulf countries have arrested dozens of people suspected of belonging to cells linked to Iran, most of them Shia, according to the report.
Shia Muslims account for approximately one-third of Kuwait’s citizens.