Kuwaiti journalists are demanding an Iranian media official apologize for accusing them of biased anti-Iranian reportage and collaboration with foreign elements.
Iran’s media attaché in Kuwait, Reza Mu’stafai “overstepped the boundaries of media and diplomatic decency,” the Kuwaiti journalists and correspondents union said in a statement issued on Saturday, according to the Kuwaiti daily A-Rai Al-‘Am.
Mu’stafai said in an interview that “some of the writers in Kuwaiti newspapers are distributing lies about the role of Iran in Iraq and the danger of nuclear facilities in the region, seeking to receive thanks from one of the foreign embassies.”
He also said some of the journalists were repeating statements of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about Iran and were “justifying Zionist crimes against our people in Lebanon.”
These views do not represent the Kuwaiti people, Mu’stafai said, adding that the Kuwaiti leadership should not accept this.
The union is demanding an immediate apology from Mu’stafai, explaining that his accusations were out of line.
Kuwait, as well as other Arab countries surrounding Iran, is concerned about Iran’s controversial nuclear program. Kuwait will be sending observers to a United States-led naval exercise in the Gulf, beginning on Monday, an issue that is further straining relations between the two Gulf countries.