Kuwait has ordered Iran to reduce its embassy staff and close down its technical offices in the Gulf Arab state following a court case which implicated "Iranian parties" of involvement in a spy cell.
Iranian state television said Kuwait's Foreign Ministry summoned Tehran’s ambassador and ordered the number of diplomats to be cut from 19 to four and the closure of the cultural and military missions.
Kuwait had also decided to freeze any activities involving joint committees between the two countries, KUNA reported.
"The government of the state of Kuwait decided to take actions in accordance with diplomatic norms and in abidance with the Vienna conventions with regards to its relationship with the Islamic Republic of Iran," acting Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak al-Sabah said.
Last year Kuwait convicted 23 men - one Iranian and the rest Kuwaiti - of spying for Iran and Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah after a cache of guns and explosives were discovered in a raid of the so-called "Abdali cell" in 2015.
