Kuwait has ordered the Iranian envoy and 14 other diplomats to leave the country for their alleged links to a “spy and terror cell”. It has also asked Tehran to shut down its technical offices in the country, Reuters reported on Friday.

State news agency Kuna reported on Thursday that the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry had asked Iran to shut down its cultural mission in the country. It has also decided to stop any activities involving joint committees of the two West Asian nations.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television said Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Tehran’s ambassador and asked Iran to cut the number of diplomats in the country from 19 to four. Iran also filed a complaint with the Kuwaiti charge d’affaires.

In August 2015, Kuwaiti agencies busted a cell and recovered large quantities of guns and explosives, reported Gulf Today. In 2016, Kuwait had convicted 22 Iranian men and one Kuwaiti of spying for Iran and Shi’ite Muslim group Hezbollah.

The men, whose acquittals by an appeals court had been overturned by a higher court, had fled to Iran via speedboats on June 18, reported the Kuwait Times. The court had sentenced one man to life imprisonment and 20 others to 15 to 20-year prison terms.