TEHRAN – Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has sharply criticized Kuwait following US attacks on Iran that Tehran says were launched from Kuwaiti territory, accusing the Persian Gulf state of betraying decades of Iranian goodwill and igniting widespread anger in the Islamic Republic.

In a post on X, Baqaei recalled Iran's assistance to Kuwait after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when Tehran dispatched a team of 47 oil industry experts at the request of the Kuwaiti government to help extinguish burning oil wells left ablaze by retreating Iraqi forces.

He said the Iranian specialists successfully brought 28 wells under control in Kuwait's giant Burgan oil field, describing the mission as part of the largest oil well firefighting operation in history. Baqaei stressed that the assistance came despite the fact that only three years had passed since the end of the Iran-Iraq War and that the wounds caused by Kuwait's support for Saddam Hussein's regime were still fresh.

Referring to the recent US military strikes against Iran, Baqaei said Washington's use of Kuwaiti territory to launch attacks had sparked outrage in Tehran. He accused Kuwait of abandoning the principles of good-neighborly relations and becoming "part of the fire of the wicked directed against our peoples."

"Iran has always adhered to good neighborliness," Baqaei wrote, warning that "the smoke of ingratitude and the absence of foresight will blind the eyes of the ungrateful."

He concluded his message with a Persian proverb, saying, "He who sows thorns does not harvest grapes from them," in an apparent warning about the consequences of Kuwait's actions.