Iran accuses Britain over sailors

[A.Rahman]

Fifteen Royal Navy personnel captured at gunpoint by Iranian forces had sailed into Iran's waters illegally, its government has insisted.

Tehran had made a "firm protest" about the "illegal entry" in the Gulf by the UK personnel, an Iranian official said.

The UK maintains the eight sailors and seven marines had been carrying out routine duties in Iraqi waters.

The personnel, who are thought to be unharmed, were seized at 1030 local time after boarding a boat in the Gulf.

Iranian and UK diplomats have met in Tehran and London in the wake of the incident.

Ibrahim Rahimpour, Iran's director general for Western European affairs, said he had met the UK's charge d'affaires, Kate Smith, in Tehran.

He said in a statement that he had delivered a "firm protest from Iran against the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters".

The statement added: "They were arrested by border guards for investigation and questioning."

Mr Rahimpour accused British sailors of having illegally entered Iranian waters "a number of times".

Both the Royal Navy and UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett denied the personnel from HMS Cornwall, which has its home port in Plymouth, had sailed into Iranian waters.

Mrs Beckett demanded their immediate and safe return.

HMS Cornwall's area of operations

Mrs Beckett said: "We understand that they were in two boats that were operating in Iraqi waters in accordance with the Security Council Resolution 1723 in support of the government of Iraq to stop smuggling."

She said Iran's ambassador to the UK, Rasoul Movahedian, had met Foreign Office officials for a "brisk but polite" discussion on Friday afternoon.

Commodore Nick Lambert said he had "absolutely no doubt" the vessel had been in Iraqi waters, adding that it could be "a simple misunderstanding at the tactical level".

This was supported by US military monitoring the movement of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

US Navy spokesman Commander Kevin Aandahl told the BBC: "They were in Iraqi territorial waters.

"We have been operating in those waters for years now. We know what the territorial lines are, we respect those territorial lines and we expect the Iranians to respect those territorial lines as well."

The incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over its nuclear programme.

It also follows claims that much of the violence against UK forces in Basra is being engineered by Iranian elements, which Tehran denies.

BBC world affairs correspondent, Ian Pannell, who is on board HMS Cornwall, said the mood on the ship was "quiet and determined" and that everybody had rallied together.

"The aspiration here is that this will be over sooner rather than later," he said.

"I think certainly the hope of the commanding officers is the events which have taken place here are possibly some kind of accident.

"Certainly they're hoping in the next 24 to 48 hours to get some positive news."

In 2004, Iran detained eight British servicemen for three days after they allegedly strayed over the maritime border.

The UK claimed the men were "forcibly escorted" into Iranian territorial waters.

The men were paraded blindfolded and made to apologise on Iranian TV before their release was agreed.


BBC

 

[Adux]

About Time, Iran is shown its real position.

 

[dr.rehan]

While i feel Iran has shown some backbone, i am not sure if the latest capture of 15 sailors, and not releasing them is in their own best interest.

Its true what musharrf said in Arab meeting today, we Muslims need to unite..

Regards
rehan

 

[A.Rahman]

Iran offers UK access to sailors

Iran has offered to let UK officials visit the 15 Royal Navy personnel who were captured in the Gulf on Friday.

 

[MastanKhan]

Hi,

I believe that it was a set up and iran fell right into the trap. How can you believe what has happened.

The mightiest navy of the world-----its marines and navy personale caught like sheep. With their mother ship supposedly not too far, with their ever present awacs----how could the british screw up so bad. Could nobody see the approaching iranian gun boats. It is unbelievable. There is a bigger lie somewhere else.

 

[niaz]

While i feel Iran has shown some backbone, i am not sure if the latest capture of 15 sailors, and not releasing them is in their own best interest.

Its true what musharrf said in Arab meeting today, we Muslims need to unite..

Regards
rehan

IMO Iran's government ( Ahmede Nejad) lacks statesmanship. While Iran's stand on the nuclear issue has justification, as any sovereign nation has a right to indulge in scientific activity. Pray tell me what Iran has to gain from this action??

Entering water illegally is the most flimsy excuse ever. How many fishermen are caught by India and Pakistan every month for the same reason ??
A kilometer either way is hardly justifiable pretext to creat an international
incident. They could easily have been asked to back a little if they had strayed.

EU was against a miliatry action on Iran, this act has succeeded in gaining their support against Iran ( What Condoliza Rice failed to do). It is not showing a backbone, all it shows is lack of "prudence". Instead of trying to avoid confrontation, Iranians are "bull baiting" instead.

What did Iran gain from the famous imprisonment of US diplomats in Iran some 20 years ago???. What Iran needs is another generation of peace so that their oil wealth can be used to industrialze the country. Iran needs confrontation as much as a hole in the head. IMO Musharraf attended the Arab League meeing because US is trying to form a Sunni alliance against the Shia Iran. This is a prelude to divide the Muslim Ummah on sectarian lines.

 

[A.Rahman]

The British Captives: Advantage Iran?

As Britain and Iran begin to inch towards a diplomatic solution to the standoff over 15 British personnel being held in Tehran, the conditions that may facilitate their release are slowly being revealed — and they suggest that Tehran may well have achieved some gains by seizing the Britons.

Iran has backed off the suggestion by some hard-line officials that the sailors and marines might be tried for entering Iranian waters. The country's national security chief Ali Larijani told a British TV network on Monday night that the question of whether the Britons had been in Iranian waters should be adjudicated on the basis of bilateral discussions, and that if they had indeed transgressed, an apology would get them released; thus far Britain has insisted its personnel were in Iraqi waters, while Iran insists they had entered its sovereign territory. Pursuing this line may allow the issue to be resolved simply by casting it as a misunderstanding — after all, even the CIA World Factbook notes that "Iraq's lack of a maritime boundary with Iran prompts jurisdiction disputes beyond the mouth of the Shatt al Arab in the Persian Gulf."

But there are other factors at work. The news that an Iranian diplomat held in Iraq since February 4 in circumstances that are unclear has been released — and the fact that Iraq's foreign ministry is "intensively" lobbying the U.S. to release five Iranians held incommunicado since their detention by U.S. forces on January 11 — may have significant bearing on the outcome of the Iran-Britain standoff. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said the release of the five Iranian captives "will be a factor that will help in the release of the British sailors and marines."

Britain's diplomatic efforts have been premised on separating the issue of the sailors from all other points of conflict with Iran, such as the standoff over its fledgling nuclear program or the Iranian detainees in Iraq. But Prime Minister Tony Blair appears to have been caught between conflicting impulses. On the one hand, he has at times assumed a tough posture edging toward ultimatums, in line with British public sentiment that has been antagonized by the spectacle of sailors and marines in humiliating confessional appearances on Iranian TV. It is also in keeping with the harsher language emanating from Washington, where President Bush last weekend referred to the British captives as "hostages" and described their capture as "inexcusable." But Blair knows that such language, and even his government's move to take the matter before the U.N. Security Council last week, isn't likely to help finesse a diplomatic solution. And in the absence of palatable alternatives, a diplomatic solution — in spite of President Bush's tough language and insistence that no concessions be made — is his only option.

The difficulty, of course, is that both the U.S. and Iran appear to see the standoff over the British personnel as just another front in their strategic contest. Britain's Independent may have shed new light on the Iranian action Monday by reporting that the intended targets of the January 11 U.S. raid that seized the Iranians in the Iraqi city of Erbil had actually been two high-ranking Iranian generals. The paper suggests the Iranian leadership has been incensed by the U.S. campaign of snatching Iranian officials in Iraq, and sought to capture the Britons in retaliation, or at least to use their capture to send a warning and gain leverage.

Despite positive indications in recent days, it's too early to be confident of a speedy release for the captured personnel. The U.S. may be reluctant to cooperate by acceding to the Iraqi government's demand that it free the Iranians it is holding. And the power struggle under way in Tehran between hard-liners and more pragmatic elements over managing the nuclear standoff with the West has reportedly seen some sharp-elbowed infighting over whether to use the captive Britons to bargain for the release of Iranians held by the U.S.

There's every reason to believe that the 15 Brits being held in Tehran will, ultimately, be sent home. But the outcome of the standoff is not yet the exclusive responsibility of the diplomats who can achieve compromises, and that could prolong the crisis.

 

[A.Rahman]

Tehran says all UK captives can go home

TEHRAN: The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, yesterday wished "good luck" and joked with Britons who had been held prisoner in Iran at a ceremony to mark the surprise news of their release, television pictures showed.

The 15 British naval personnel were expected to leave Iran today, an Iranian source said.

Mr Ahmadinejad smiled when he met one of the Britons joking: "So you came on a mandatory vacation."

The men were wearing suits rather than their uniforms, and one witness at the ceremony said Faye Turney, the only woman, was wearing a blue headscarf with dark pink shirt.

The ceremony followed an unexpected announcement that the sailors and marines, allegedly captured in Iraqi waters almost two weeks ago, had been pardoned and would be freed.

"While insisting on our rights, these 15 sailors have been pardoned and we offer their freedom to the British people," Mr Ahmadinejad said at a news conference in Tehran.

"After the news conference they can go to the airport and go back home," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

An official said later that the crew would be released to the British embassy in Tehran.

However, the hardline president - who had postponed the much-awaited press conference from Tuesday - lashed out at Britain over its handling of the 13-day crisis and decorated a Revolutionary Guards commander who had seized the Britons in the northern Gulf.

"The Blair Government chose the path of media hype and sent the issue to the UN Security Council," Mr Ahmadinejad said. "The British people can ask its government what the British soldiers are doing in Iraq or in Iranian waters."

Earlier, Iran had applauded a "change of tone" from Britain after talks with a top adviser to the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, raising hopes of a solution to the crisis, which had further damaged ties between Tehran and the West already frayed by the nuclear stand-off. Iran's top security official, Ali Larijani, held talks with Mr Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, Sir Nigel Sheinwald yesterday.

Iran had insisted the key to resolving the crisis was an admission from Britain that the sailors and marines had intruded into Iranian territorial waters on March 23.

Britain maintains the group was carrying out routine anti-smuggling operations in Iraqi waters in line with a UN mandate, but Iran says the sailors' global positioning system devices show they intruded into Iranian waters.

The developments coincided with the release in Baghdad of an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in February. Iran had blamed US forces for the abduction.

Iranian state media also said five Iranian officials captured by US forces in Iraq in January and accused of seeking to stir trouble were expected to receive their first visit by an Iranian diplomat.

Asked if the Iranians should be freed to favour a possible release of the Britons, the US President, George Bush, insisted there should be no "quid pro quos".

Britain welcomed the announcement that its personnel would be released, a spokesman for Mr Blair said.

The crisis has come at a perilous time for Iran's relations with the West, with the US refusing to rule out military action over the Iranian nuclear program and the United Nations imposing tough new sanctions.

In his address, however, Mr Ahmadinejad warned world powers they could not deprive Iran of its right to nuclear technology through UN resolutions.

He said Iran, which says its atomic aims are entirely peaceful, could retaliate over sanctions imposed on Iranian banks abroad by the UN Security Council. "If they want to create disturbances … for parts of our economy, (like) banks, we will retaliate there or in other places," he said.

 

[PakSniper]

That's good news, we can say Iran played its cards right, and showed even next time they willn't hesitiate to capture intruders.

But as long as catastrophe is averted I'm happy.

 

[EagleEyes]

Iran took the advantage of this and got the diplomatic attention it needed. It went really good i am telling you. British were all frowned.

 

[kidwaibhai]

Iranian are amazing stratigist. the way played the world and after all of this they make it look to the whole world that they are the reasonable when they were the one actually escalated the situation

 

[Adux]

Iran played right into the American Hands, Now the So called Euro-Wuzzies will side with the yanks

 

[PakSniper]

No, look at it this way, when Isro's troops were taken Israel responded, and neither US or UK were able to threathen them significantely, UK all they could do was talk they have air bases, etc right in Iraq. But Iran played it's cards well, I will give it that, they wanted to see how US and UK responded and Iran wasn't scared at all, its bascially saying do it again (crossing) and we wouldn't be hesitiant to take more.

 

[Adux]

Hezbollah is not Iran, US and UK will never get into an Israeli Conflict with them. Iran should be rightfully scared, cuz they would get bombed back to stone age. They released the prisoners before the Blair's 2 day ultimatum, shows they knew they couldnt carry it forward. Iran is being stupid and loosing friends and diplomatic help from all around.
Iran needs leaders not some jingo saying idiot

 

[kidwaibhai]

i think this was a media stunt from iran and i think they came out on top. they let go of the sailors saying this was a present for easter which made them look gracious. also everybody talks that the US and Uk will bomb iran to the stone do you people actually think that iran is going to sit and do nothing while it is being bombed it will lash out in both iraq and afghanistan and if gets destabelized the entire region is going to go to hell this will even spread instability in the caucuses that will create problems for Europe. the americans and the Brits know this that is why they dont attack iran. plz look at things in the bigger picture. that is why i say that the iranians are amazing strategist. this also improves their position in arab masses which see them as standing up to the oppressive west