Kuwait summons Iran envoy over Soleimani killing claim

Kuwait summons Iran envoy over Soleimani killing claim
January 25, 2020, 9:58 am

Kuwait rejects Iran's claim that one of its air bases was used in US strikes that killed Qassem Soleimani. (AFP)

Kuwait’s foreign ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador Friday after a high-level Iranian official implicated the emirate in the US drone attack that killed top general Qassem Soleimani, official news agency KUNA reported.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah expressed Kuwait’s “amazement” at the claim that one of its airbases had been among those used to carry out the January 3 attack, KUNA said.

It said he was referring to a statement by Brigadier-General Amirali Hajizadeh, aerospace commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“MQ-9 UAVs (drones) were flying in the region (at the time of the attack) that had mostly taken off from Kuwait’s Ali Al-Salem” base, Hajizadeh told Iranian state television Thursday.

Jarallah told the ambassador, Mohammed Irani, that Kuwait had already denied any role in the deadly attack in Baghdad.

He said such a claim “risks damaging relations” between Kuwait and Iran.

Soleimani had been at the center of power-broking in the region for two decades as chief of Iran’s external operations Quds Force of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

source: AFP

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