June 20, 2017 - 12:19 PM
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's Revolutionary Guard is rejecting Saudi claims that its navy captured three members of the elite force intending to carry out an attack on a major offshore oilfield.
Gen. Rasoul Sanaeizadeh, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard's political bureau, described the Saudi allegations as a "sheer lie" and "an amateurish fabrication." His remarks were published Tuesday by Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Saudi Arabia says the Revolutionary Guard members were aboard a boat carrying explosives headed toward the Marjan oil field in the Persian Gulf on Friday.
Other Iranian officials have claimed the detainees are fishermen who were lost.
Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-ruled Iran are bitter rivals that back opposing sides of the wars in Syria and Yemen.
News from © The Associated Press, 2017