Kuwait Arrests Four Iranian Nationals After Naval Incident Near Bubiyan Island

Kuwait has arrested four Iranian nationals after an incident on May 1 involving a vessel that entered waters near Bubiyan Island. According to Kuwaiti authorities, the four men were aboard a fishing boat and were captured following a confrontation in which a Kuwaiti soldier was wounded.

Kuwait's Ministry of Interior stated that two of those detained were Guard naval captains, one a Guard naval lieutenant and one a Guard army lieutenant. It said two other members of the group escaped. The Ministry of Interior described the boat as specially chartered to carry out hostile actions against Kuwait and said the men admitted they had been tasked by the IRGC with infiltrating the island.

Iran's Foreign Ministry denied that the four were on a military mission. It acknowledged that four Iranian sailors had entered Kuwaiti waters but attributed the entry to a malfunction in their navigation system. The ministry demanded the immediate release of the four Iranian nationals and called on Kuwaiti authorities to grant employees of Iran's embassy access to the detainees.

It condemned what it described as Kuwait's inappropriate political and media actions.

Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the incident as a flagrant violation of Kuwaiti sovereignty and a grave breach of international law. It demanded that Iran immediately and unconditionally cease unlawful hostile acts. The deputy foreign minister summoned Iran's ambassador to Kuwait and handed over a formal protest note, reserving Kuwait's right to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

Kuwait has attributed responsibility for the incident to Iran.

The same Kuwaiti authorities have linked Iran to an earlier incident on March 30 in which an Indian national was killed in an attack on a Kuwaiti power and desalination plant. Tehran has denied responsibility for that strike and blamed Israel instead.

Earlier this week Kuwait reported intercepting a number of hostile drones in its airspace but did not specify their origin. No publicly released evidence has been cited in the available reports linking the May 1 vessel incident to targeting of specific infrastructure on Bubiyan Island.

Bubiyan Island lies at the northern tip of the Gulf near the Iraqi border. Kuwait has not publicly identified the vessel's operators beyond the accusations against the four detained men. Iran's Foreign Ministry has not commented further as of the latest statements included in reporting on the arrests.