Iran’s elite force rejects Saudi claims of foiled attack

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.