Iran rejects Saudi accusation it trained a 'terrorist cell'

 Iran rejected on Tuesday an accusation by Saudi Arabia that it had trained a radical cell .

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had arrested 10 people earlier this month and seized weapons and explosives from a radical cell that had received training from Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. Saudi security authorities, however, didn't say where the raid or the arrests were administered .

“Competent authorities at the presidency thwarted a radical cell [...] whose elements received military and field training on the way to make explosives, at the Revolutionary Guard's sites in Iran,” the kingdom's State Security Presidency said late on Monday.

“Security investigations revealed the weather ' identities also as two sites employed by the elements to store weapons and explosives,” it said during a statement carried on official media.

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It said that among the things seized were improvised explosive devices (IEDs), dozens of stun guns, kilos of gunpowder and a spread of rifles and pistols.

Among the ten people detained, whose identities were being kept covert , three had undergone training in Iran, it said.

“The competent authorities are investigating all elements arrested to seek out out more information about their activities and therefore the persons connected to them within the kingdom and abroad.”

Iran's foreign ministry dismissed the Saudi claims as “completely fabricated”.

“Saudi rulers have discard political rationality and now [...] have chosen to fabricate lies against Iran as a way to distract popular opinion and a way to hide their failed attempts,” spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said during a statement.

Relations between Riyadh and Tehran are tense for several years.

Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic relations with Iran following 2016 attacks by demonstrators on its missions in Iran after the dominion executed revered Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.

Tensions also escalated last year over a series of attacks on tankers within the Gulf, that Washington blamed on Tehran, despite its denial of any involvement.

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of providing military support to Houthi rebels in Yemen, a charge which Tehran also denies. Riyadh and its allies are fighting the rebels since March 2015.