MANAMA – Bahrain has put two Iranians and a Bahraini on trial on charges of spying for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the state news agency said on Tuesday. “They are accused of contacts with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to give them military and economic information from 2002 to April 2010… with the intention of damaging the national interest,” the Bahrain News Agency said. It said the men requested money from Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard force in return for the information. The next session for the trial has been set for April 20, the report said, but did not say when the trial began or provide other details. Gulf Arab countries are concerned over what they see as the ambition of Iran, a Shi’ite power, to extend its influence in Arab countries mostly under Sunni rule. Bahrain’s Gulf Arab allies accused Iran of interfering in their affairs after Tehran objected to the dispatch of Saudi troops to help Bahrain put down protests last month. Bahrain, a Sunni Muslim monarchy, received help from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help break up the pro-democracy protest movement. The island state, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, accuses Iran of fomenting the protests, which were led by majority Shi’ite Muslims. Kuwait said this week it had expelled three Iranian diplomats for involvement in a spy ring and in a tit-for-tat move Tehran has given three Kuwaiti diplomats 10 days to leave Iran. Last month, a Kuwaiti court sentenced two Iranians and a Kuwaiti to death for being part of the alleged spy ring.
