MANAMA (AFP) – Bahrain has declared the second secretary in the Iranian embassy here persona non grata and ordered him to leave within 72 hours due to his alleged links with a Kuwait spy ring, BNA news agency said.

The report named the official as Hujatullah Rahmani and said Iran’s charge d’affaires in Bahrain was summoned on Monday to the foreign ministry where the decision had been conveyed to him.

Earlier this month, Iranian state television said three of Tehran’s diplomats and an embassy employee were expelled from Kuwait for alleged links to a spy ring working for Tehran, reportedly ever since the invasion of Iraq.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah later charged that the diplomats had proven links to a suspected spy ring, three members of which a Kuwaiti court condemned to death on March 29.

The expulsions come during heightened tensions between Gulf Arab states and their Iranian neighbour across the water. In addition to Kuwaiti allegations of Iranian spying, Bahrain has also accused Iran of meddling in its affairs.

The March 14 intervention of a Saudi-led Gulf force in Bahrain, which freed up the tiny Sunni-ruled kingdom’s security forces to crush a Shiite-led pro-democracy protest movement, sparked a war of words between Iran and its Arab neighbors.