Qatar on Sunday denied press reports that it had seized two Iranian boats carrying weapons in the Gulf amid mounting tensions in the strategic region.

“The reports about the seizure in territorial waters of two Iranian boats loaded with weapons are inaccurate,” the official QNA news agency quoted an interior ministry spokesman as saying.

The denial comes after Dubai based Gulf News reported the Iranian boats were seized and held near Zubara in the northeast of Qatar and near the sea border between Bahrain and Qatar.

Qatar is a member of the Peninsula Shield, the military arm of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which this month sent units to Bahrain to help guard major installations.

Iran has been accused of fueling tension in Bahrain after its leaders issued statements supporting the protesters and harshly criticizing the Bahraini government and the deployment of Peninsula Shields forces in Bahrain.

The majority of the people in Bahrain are Shiite Arabs, but there are many Persian Shiites who immigrated there as laborers during the past 4 centuries