Manama: Bahrain’s foreign minister has advised his Iranian counterpart to visit the kingdom and see the reality on the ground instead of relying on misleading reports for an assessment of the situation.

Bahrain on Saturday said it thwarted an attempt to smuggle “a lethal mix of materials that included 43.8 kg of the powerful C4 explosive, eight automatic assault rifles (Kalashnikov), 32 Kalashnikov magazines, and ammunition and detonators.”

The interior ministry said one suspect received in August 2013 military training at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ camp that included the manufacturing and use of explosive ordinance and improvised explosive devices, as well as firearms training.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied Bahrain’s report as “baseless.”

“I openly say the claims are totally wrong,” he said. “The timing of the announcement is an attempt to prevent any progress in cooperation between Iran and other Gulf states,” Zarif said in Kuwait, his first stop on a regional tour that will take him also to Qatar and Iraq.

However, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister, said Zarif was wrong.

“Iran’s foreign minister says the accusations of weapon smuggling into Bahrain are totally wrong. I advise him to come here so that we show him the facts that the Revolutionary Guards have concealed from him,” Shaikh Khalid posted on his Twitter account where he has 231,600 followers.

Shaikh Khalid earlier posted a link to the video showing the arrest of the two men as they were trying to smuggle in the explosives and weapons.

“Watch the video and listen to the outright confessions. This is just a bit of the losing war that Iran has launched against all of us,” he posted.

Relations between the two countries have plummeted to their lowest in decades amid accusations by Bahrain that Iran was interfering in its domestic affairs.

Last week, Manama recalled its ambassador to Tehran “for consultations” in the aftermath of a statement by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Eid day said that whether the deal reached with world powers is approved or disapproved, Iran “will never stop supporting its friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon.”

Bahrain rejected the statement, saying it “represented a flagrant and unacceptable interference in Bahrain’s internal affairs, a blatant encroachment on its sovereignty and independence and a violation of the UN and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) principles.”

Iran must put an end immediately to such statements and concentrate, instead, on improving the living conditions of the friendly Iranian people, Bahrain said as it summoned Iran’s top diplomat in the kingdom to protest against the statement.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – a loose alliance of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -, and Cairo-based Al Azhar, the highest religious authority in Egypt condemned Iran’s interference in Bahrain.

On Thursday, Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa called upon Bahrainis and residents to openly express their support to the country and their condemnation of Iran’s interference in the domestic affairs of the kingdom.

The minister said the multifaceted Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Bahrain was totally unacceptable and did not conform to international norms that respect the values of good neighbourliness.

The interference includes antagonistic political statements, the smuggling of explosives, weapons and ammunitions into the kingdom, the harbouring of fugitives and the use of Iranian military camps to train Bahrainis on terrorist acts that target innocent people, he said.

The interference also includes orchestrating and launching constant and misleading propaganda campaigns against the Kingdom of Bahrain and its people to disseminate misinformation and false narratives about the kingdom, Shaikh Rashid added.