Iran has denied claims by Saudi Arabia that three of its elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members had been arrested aboard an explosive-laden boat near an oil platform in the Persian Gulf.
Interior ministry’s director general for border affairs, Majid Aqa-Babaei, denied on Monday the Saudi claims as not true.
Earlier in the day, Saudi Arabia’s information ministry had said in a statement that Saudi forces had captured and were questioning “three IRGC members, who were intending to carry out an attack on a major offshore oilfield in the Persian Gulf,” according to an Associated Press (AP) report.
Earlier on Saturday, Aqa-Babaei had said that the Saudi Arabian coastguard had opened fire on Iranian fishing boats in the waters south of Iran, killing one fisherman.
Saudi Arabia, too, had reported the incident on Saturday but had not made the claims about arresting IRGC members and about explosives. It offered a changed narrative, however, with the information ministry statement, which came some two days after the initial narrative.
In his Monday remarks, Aqa-Babaei referred to the new Saudi allegation about the arrests and said, “This issue has to do with the same two fishing boats” that had been shot at.
He said that three Iranians had been taken into custody by the Saudi Arabian coastguard, but stressed that all the three are known fishermen from the southern Iranian city of Bushehr.
Aqa-Babaei said the Iranians in question were “simply fishermen” and had no types of weapons whatsoever.
“There is no proof that they are military personnel,” the Iranian official said.
Source: Iranian media
