Iran nabs British sailors in Iraq waters

[Chana3812]

this is it!! this will be the start of war with Iran. Cheney smiles as his plan is put into action

Iran nabs British sailors in Iraq waters

Associated Press
7 minutes ago

LONDON - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said.

Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said.
The British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed their inspection of a merchant ship when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, the ministry said.

"We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and ... the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office," the ministry said.

A Pentagon official said the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation, said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the incident.

He said the confrontation happened as the British contingent was traveling along the boundary of territorial waters between Iran and Iraq. They were detained by the Revolutionary Guard's navy, he said.

A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman declined to be identified because of security concerns.

"Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters."

The Britain government said it had demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."

[werther]

here we go.

[Gold9472]

Remember... Iran (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14873) said they were going to do this to retaliate against the U.S. for "kidnapping" their people. In other words, the U.S. has instigated this...

[thumper]

this reminds me of the movie tomorrow never dies. we'll see what happens next

[Chana3812]

(IRGC = sounds like they are the CIA of Iran)

Friday, Mar. 23, 2007
Why Iran Seized the British Marines

By Howard Chua-Eoan/New York


The most ominous detail about Iran's seizure of 15 British Royal Marines in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway on Friday morning is that the servicemen were reportedly taken into custody by the navy of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is a powerful, separate branch of the Iranian armed forces. Soaked with nationalist ideology, it has grown into a state within a state in Iran, with its own naval, air and ground forces, parallel to official government institutions. The IRGC is directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the ultimate font of religious and political power in Iran. The IRGC also has its own intelligence arm and commands irregular forces such as the basij — a voluntary paramilitary group affiliated with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — and the Quds force, which has been accused by the U.S. of supplying material to Iraqi insurgents bent on killing American soldiers. The IRGC is also known for its clandestine activities including logistical support for militant organizations like Lebanon's Hizballah, which it helped to set up in the 1980s, and several Shi'a militia groups in Iraq. The IRGC's activities are often a thorn in the side of Iran's Foreign Ministry, which is forced to repair the ruptures in Tehran's diplomatic relations with countries the Guard has inflamed with its self-directed adventures. Nevertheless, it has been one of Iran's main instrument in projecting power and influence over the last few decades.

Because the IRGC's actions are always interwoven with the religious-nationalist ideology of Iran's hardliners, extricating the British may be complicated. The Royal Marines, assigned to HMS Cornwall, had been on an anti-smuggling procedure sanctioned by the U.N. but were apparently taken into custody anyway by Iranian naval vessels in the Shatt-al-Arab, a 120-mile stretch of salt marsh disputed between Iraq and Iran. It is the second such incident. In June 2004, Iran took eight British marines and sailors from their patrol boats, keeping them for three days, saying they had breached the maritme border. While they were held, the servicemen were paraded around blindfolded and forced to apologize on Iranian TV, before being released. At that time, the Iranian presidency was held by Mohammad Khatami, considered a moderate more accommodating to the West. The current administration in Tehran is led by Ahmadinejad whose confrontational stance has been the bane of Washington. (In a recent speech, U.S. Treasury Secretary Stuart Levey charged that the Revolutionary Guard's "control and influence in the Iranian economy is growing exponentially under the regime of Ahmadinejad." He noted the Guard is taking over regular government functions such as management of the Tehran airport and building a new Tehran metro. The growing economic clout may be why IRGC's current commander in chief, Rahim Safavi, is considered a pragmatist in Tehran political circles. However, his public comments hardly reflect that political pragmatism.

This week's Shatt al-Arab incident occurs amid a contretemps over Ahmadinejad's proposed trip to the U.N. Security Council to argue for his country's right to pursue the development of nuclear energy, a goal that has met with international opprobrium. According to CNN, the Iranian president has cancelled his weekend trip because Washington has not issued visas for the crew of his plane. (The U.S. State Department insists that all visa requests were honored.) At the same time, Tehran remains in the middle of a dispute with the United States over the detention in January of six of its officials in the Iraqi city of Erbil, taken from what Iran claims was its consulate there. U.S. military officials in Iraq insist it was not a consulate officially recognized by Iraq and that the six had illegal passports, did not have diplomatic credentials and that one had an official ID card from the Quds force, which is part of the IRGC. The U.S. says the six detainees are being investigated in regard to aiding Iraqi insurgents. Meanwhile, Washington has referred all inquiries in the current Shatt al-Arab incident to the British Ministry of Defense.

As Iran increases the volume of its militancy, the rest of the nations on the gulf have grown more and more nervous. The public speculation about a potential war between the U.S. and Iran have added to that anxiety, as have incidents like the taking of the British marines and an earlier event in March when the Saudi Arabian navy engaged an Iranian submarine. No shots were fired but the Saudis found the sub near the Saudi city of Jubail, a coastal industrial center that is the site of major Saudi petrochemical and oil installations, as well as the location of the King Abdul Aziz naval base. The Saudis minimized the incident, accepting the Iranian explanatin that the sub's closeness to Jubail was a mistake. The Saudis also did not want to further stress relations between Riyadh and Tehran. But an Arab surce in the gulf believes that the incident may have been an Iranian political message to the U.S. and the world — a reminder that Iran has assets in the gulf to threaten American and its allies there. Reported by Scott Macleod/Cairo, Jumana Farouky/London, Brian Bennett/Baghdad and Elaine Shannon/Washington http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1602389,00.html (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1602389,00.html)

[Gold9472]

Iran says Britons confessed to territory violation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070324/ts_nm/iran_britain_dc

By Fredrik Dahl 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's military said on Saturday British naval personnel seized in the Gulf confessed to entering Iranian waters illegally, but Britain maintained they were detained inside Iraqi territory and demanded their release.

Iranian forces captured 15 British sailors and marines on Friday at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which marks the southern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iran). It sparked a diplomatic crisis at a time of increased tension over Tehran's nuclear standoff with the United States and other major powers.

The semi-official Fars news agency said they had been transferred to Tehran to explain their "aggressive action," but this could not be confirmed. Fars also said the group included some women.

"These people are under investigation and have confessed they have violated the waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the ISNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.

The official, Deputy Commander Alireza Afshar, told state radio the Britons were in good health. "The investigation is going on and they are healthy and there is no problem."

Iranian Arabic-language television station al-Alam later quoted him as saying the "confessions" would be made public soon without specifying how.

Afshar said they were detained on Friday by naval units of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideologically-driven wing of Iran's armed forces which has a separate command structure from the regular military.

Britain has not released the identities of the personnel.

"We still maintain they were in Iraqi waters when they were picked up," a British diplomat in Tehran said, adding he had no official information they had been moved to the capital.

He said the British ambassador was expected to meet Iranian Foreign Ministry officials on Sunday and would press for their release as well access to them. "We would like to see them as soon as possible," the diplomat said.

ENVOYS SUMMONED
Britain said two boatloads of Royal Navy sailors and marines had searched a merchant vessel on a U.N. approved mission in Iraqi waters when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.

An Iraqi fisherman who said he saw Iranian forces detain them, said on Saturday the ship British forces were searching was anchored in Iraqi waters.

The incident sent oil prices up more than one percent to a three-month high on Friday. It took place a day after Iran launched a week of naval war games along its coast, including the Gulf's northern reaches which give access to the oil output of Iraq (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq), Iran and Kuwait.

It also came ahead of Saturday's expected U.N. Security Council (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=U.N.+Security%0ACouncil) vote to impose new arms and financial sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which the West suspects is designed to make atom bombs.

Tehran denies the charge, saying it is only aimed at generating electricity and save its oil and gas for export.

The package of sanctions targets Iran's arms exports, its state-owned Bank Sepah and the Revolutionary Guards.

In London, Britain held an hour-long meeting with Iran's ambassador to demand the immediate release of the naval personnel, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, in the second such meeting in London since Friday's incident.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards captured eight British servicemen in similar circumstances in 2004 and released them unharmed after three nights. Iran said they had crossed into its waters, which Britain disputed.

[PhilosophyGenius]

It'll be intersting to see if people who attacked anyone who doubted KSM's confessions start saying that the British sailers were coerced by the Iranians.

That is all.

[Gold9472]

US troops 'would have fought Iranian captors'

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2393337.ece

(Gold9472: And I have no doubt that the international incident that probably would have sparked WWIII almost immediately, would have made Dick a happy man.)

By Terri Judd in Bahrain
Published:^26 March 2007

A senior American commander in the Gulf has said his men would have fired on the Iranian Republican Guard rather than let themselves be taken hostage.

In a dramatic illustration of the different postures adopted by British and US forces working together in Iraq, Lt-Cdr Erik Horner - who has been working alongside the task force to which the 15 captured Britons belonged - said he was "surprised" the British marines and sailors had not been more aggressive.

Asked by The Independent whether the men under his command would have fired on the Iranians, he said: "Agreed. Yes. I don't want to second-guess the British after the fact but our rules of engagement allow a little more latitude. Our boarding team's training is a little bit more towards self-preservation."

The executive officer - second-in-command on USS Underwood, the frigate working in the British-controlled task force with HMS Cornwall - said: "The unique US Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self-defence but also an obligation to self-defence. They [the British] had every right in my mind and every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken. Our reaction was, 'Why didn't your guys defend themselves?'"

His comments came as it was reported British intelligence had been warned by the CIA that Iran would seek revenge for the detention of five suspected Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq two months ago but refused to raise threat levels in line with their US counterparts. The capture of the eight sailors and seven marines - including one young mother - will undoubtedly renew accusations that Britain's determination to maintain a friendly face in the region has left its troops frequently under protected.

Vastly outnumbered and out-gunned, the Royal Navy team from HMS Cornwall were seized on Friday after completing a UN-authorised inspection of a merchant dhow in what they insist were clearly Iraqi waters. The Iranian Republican Guard Corps Navy appeared in half a dozen attack speedboats mounted with machine guns..

Yesterday, the former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West, said British rules of engagement were "very much de-escalatory, because we don't want wars starting ... Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away."

Three days after the team were taken hostage, Tony Blair publicly spoke about the diplomatic crisis for the first time. "I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," he said

"We have certainly sent the message back to them very clearly indeed. They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong," he added, speaking from Berlin.

In a telephone conversation with the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki last night the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett "expressed concern regarding the detention of the British soldiers". An Iranian official later confirmed that Iran may give consular access to the British sailors once an investigation into the incident is completed.

Yesterday, the armed forces spokesman General Ali Reza Afshar said the crew were in "sterling health" and were being interrogated in Tehran, where the Iranians claim they have "confessed" to straying into Iranian waters.

The Foreign Office minister, Lord Triesman, held "frank" discussions with the Iranian ambassador yesterday .

[beltman713]

I'm sure the British are liking this.

[Gold9472]

Blair condemns Iran's detention of sailors

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Blair_condemns_Iran_s_detention_of__03252007.html

Published: Sunday March 25, 2007

Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday called Iran's seizure of 15 British naval personnel "unjustified and wrong" as international pressure grew on Iran over the new diplomatic crisis.

British authorities said they did not know where the personnel, who were seized on Friday, were being held but Iran said the 14 men and one woman were all well.

"The quicker it is resolved, the easier it is for all. But it is quite unjustified and wrong," Blair told reporters on the sidelines of EU 50th anniversary celebrations in Berlin.

"They were in Iraqi water, it is not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters," he said in his first public comments since the detentions on Friday.

The eight British Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines, all based on the British warship HMS Cornwall, were seized in the Gulf waterway that divides Iraq and Iran.

Britain says the group was conducting "routine" anti-smuggling operations, but Iran said Saturday the group had admitted to illegally entering Iranian waters.

British press reports have speculated that the naval personnel could be used as bargaining chips in the mounting war of words between Tehran and the West or traded for Iranians captured in Iraq earlier this year.

The Iranian action has added to tensions caused by fresh United Nations sanctions ordered Saturday over Iran's nuclear programme.

But EU foreign policy Javier Solana, offering to raise the matter with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, said the group's seizure was not linked to Iran's atomic programme.

"This issue must be kept separate from the nuclear negotiations," he said.

Blair said he hoped the solution would come in "an as easy and diplomatic way as possible," adding: "I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us."

French President Jacques Chirac said Britain had the "complete solidarity" of all EU leaders over the missing sailors.

"It seems clear that the soldiers were not in the Iranian zone at the time (of their capture)," Chirac told reporters in Berlin.

The German presidency of the EU issued a statement on Saturday calling for the immediate release of the Britons.

Britain's ambassador to Tehran, Geoffrey Adams, met senior officials at the Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday.

He asked to be told the whereabouts of the group, sought reassurances about their health and urged their release but got no immediate response, a foreign ministry spokesman in London told AFP.

Lord David Triesman, a junior Foreign Office minister, said in an interview with Sky News television: "We don't know where they are. We wish we did. We are asking whether they are being moved around inside Iran."

Iran's foreign ministry did not say where the Britons are being held.

But it released a statement saying: "The British sailors are in good health and the procedure for studying their case continues," despite the current Iranian New Year holidays.

The Sunday Times newspaper quoted an Iraqi military officer in the southern port city of Basra as saying the sailors were not in Iraqi waters when they were detained.

"We were informed by Iraqi fishermen that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control," said Brigadier General Hakim Jassim, who the paper said was "in nominal charge of territorial waters".

"We don't know why they were there," he said.

But Triesman again denied that the group had deliberately entered Iranian territory, telling Sky News: "There's no reason for them to do so."

He also said London was "confident" satellite tracking records would prove them right.

Iran's ambassador to London has twice been summoned to the Foreign Office. On Friday he met a senior civil servant and Triesman on Saturday.

Triesman said Britain wanted the Iranians to reassure the group's families that they were in good health and unharmed.

The group's seizure came three years after eight British Royal Navy personnel training their Iraqi counterparts on the nearby Shatt al-Arab waterway were detained for three days by Iran.

They were blindfolded, paraded on Iranian television and apologised for their actions -- although Britain denied illegal encroachment -- before being released.

[Chana3812]

how many days before the Allied Troops attack Iran ??

5 ... 10.... ??

this is it :(

war sucks

[Gold9472]

American raid and arrests set scene for capture of marines

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2393336.ece

By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil
Published:^26 March 2007

At 3am on 11 January US military forces raided the Iranian liaison office in the Kurdish capital Arbil and detained five Iranian officials who are still prisoners.

The attack marked a significant escalation in the confrontation between the US and Iran.

Britain is inevitably involved in this as America's only important foreign ally in Iraq. In fact the US raid could have had even more significant consequences if the Americans had captured the Iranian official they were targeting. Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of the Kurdish president Massoud Barzani, told The Independent that "they were after Mohammed Jafari, the deputy chairman of Iran's National Security Council."

It is a measure of the difficulty America has in getting its close allies in Iraq, notably the Kurds, to join it in confronting Iran that Mr Jafari was in Arbil as part of an Iranian delegation. He had just visited Mr Barzani in his mountain-top headquarters at Salahudin and earlier he met with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Dokan in eastern Kurdistan.

The political links between Iran and Iraq will be difficult to sever. Most Iraqi political leaders, Arab or Kurdish, were exiles in Iran or in Syria. They are also conscious that one day the US will withdraw from Iraq but Iran will always be there.

Some businessmen in Arbil scent profitable opportunities as the UN tightens its embargo on trade with Iran, announced at the weekend by the UN. As official trade is squeezed, they foresee remunerative possibilities for smuggling goods in and out of Iran.

Economically, northern Iraq needs Iran more than Iran needs it. Iranian petrol commands a premium price because it is considered pure and Kurdistan is eager to increase its supply of electricity, of which it is permanently short, from Iran.

In terms of US domestic and international politics, an American confrontation with Iran on the nuclear issue probably makes sense. Washington can rally support against Iran in a way that it cannot do when it looks for support for its occupation of Iraq. Seeing the US bogged down in Iraq, the Iranians may have overplaying their hand in developing nuclear power.

Inside Iraq, confrontation with Iran does not make much political sense. All America's allies in Iraq have close ties with Iran. The only anti-Iranian community in Iraq is the five million Sunni who have been fighting the US for the past four years.

The US raid on Arbil in January would have had far more serious consequences if Mr Jafari had been abducted. As it was, the seizure of five Iranian officials seems to have set the scene for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards seizing 15 British sailors and marines.

[Chana3812]

tit for tat

[Gold9472]

Iran says British sailors interrogated

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iran_says_British_sailors_interroga_03262007.html

AFP
Published: Monday March 26, 2007

Fifteen British navy personnel seized by Iran on Friday are currently being interrogated and will have to answer to allegations they violated Iranian waters, an Iranian official said on Monday.

The British government has meanwhile kept up pressure on Iran as the row sends out shockwaves around the world.

Prime Minister Tony Blair labelled the group's seizure "unjustified and wrong" and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett lobbied for their safe return in a phone call on Sunday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

And with tensions rising in the region over both their capture and Iran's disputed nuclear programme, oil prices rose to their highest levels this year -- well above 62 dollars in Asian trade.

[Gold9472]

tit for tat

That's actually what happened before the Israel/Lebanon war. Israel snatched up two Lebanese people the day before Lebanon snatched up two Israelis. That story does exist on this site, and if I remember correctly, it was reported by the Los Angeles Times. However, I have not been able to locate it. Feel free to look.

[Gold9472]

Yay... I found (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showpost.php?p=66874&postcount=3) it.

"But the Palestinians have explained that their commandos were carrying out a reprisal raid after the IDF seized two Palestinian brothers, Osama and Mustafa Muamar, who, they claimed, are innocent of anything save being sons of a known Hamas activist, Ali Muamar."

Here's [/color]http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showpost.php?p=66872&postcount=1]more ([color=red)...

"One day before, on June 24, Israeli forces kidnapped two Gaza civilians, Osama and Mustafa Muamar, by any standards a far more severe crime than capture of a soldier. The Muamar kidnappings were certainly known to the major world media. They were reported at once in the English-language Israeli press, basically IDF handouts. And there were a few brief, scattered and dismissive reports in several newspapers around the US."

[Gold9472]

PM warns of 'different phase' in Iran crisis
Iran must obey international law and release 15 British military personnel or face the consequences, says Tony Blair

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1574513.ece

Sam Knight and agencies
3/27/2007

Britain's relations with Iran will move into "a different phase" unless Tehran quickly releases 15 British sailors and Marines taken hostage last week, Tony Blair said today.

The Prime Minister gave the warning while insisting that diplomatic channels remained the preferred route to secure the release of the personnel, who were seized in the disputed Shatt al Arab waterway which divides Iran and Iraq on Friday.

Asked whether there was any news on the eight sailors and seven Marines this morning, Mr Blair told GMTV: “No, there isn’t, but let me just say our first concern is for their welfare and to get them released as quickly as possible."

“What we are trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them. I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."

The Iranian Ambassador to London, Rasoul Movahedian, was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the second time since the abductions yesterday, where Lord Treisman demanded consular access to the 15, who were captured at gunpoint by members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. A similar request was made by Geoffrey Adams, the British Ambassador to Tehran.

But so far Tehran has refused, alleging that the service personnel were in Iranian waters as they boarded a dhow carrying suspicious cargo off the coast of Iraq, a charge the Royal Navy and the US military deny. Today Iran's Foreign Ministry repeated its assertion that the sailors and Marines from HMS Cornwall were safe and well but refused to confirm reports that they had been brought to the capital.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told the Associated Press.

Mr Hosseini said that only woman sailor among the group, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, was being held apart from the others, to give her privacy. "Definitely all ethics have been observed," he said.

He added that the personnel were being interrogated as to whether they entered Iranian waters deliberately or not, suggesting a possible way out of the impasse. The Iranian version of the story is that sailors were arrested in the Armand River, at the northern tip of the Shatt al Arab waterway.

Last night relatives of Ms Turney, who is 26, spoke of their distress at her capture. In a statement released by the Ministry of Defence, the family said: “While we understand the media interest in the ongoing incident involving Faye, this remains a very distressing time for us and our family. We are grateful for the support shown to us by all personnel involved and appreciate it, but would request that our privacy is respected.”

This morning the Prime Minister said that there should be no connection between the seizing of the British personnel and the capture of five Iranian officials in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil earlier this year.

The US military has accused the Iranian men of being part of Tehran's efforts to supply Shia militias with weapons and training and deepen the country's sectarian war.

“It should have absolutely no bearing at all, because any Iranian forces who are inside Iraq are breaching the UN mandate and undermining the democratically-elected government of Iraq, so they have got no cause to be there at all," said Mr Blair.

“The two situations are completely distinct. In the end, it is a question really for the Iranian Government as to whether they want to abide by international law or not. I hope that they do and we are working hard to try to persuade them that that is a sensible thing to do."

The diplomatic barrage will continue today when Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, will use a discussion with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, to put pressure on Tehran. Mrs Beckett, who is in Ankara, said she would ask Turkey to facilitate discussions between London and Tehran while discussing the country's faltering bid for EU membership.

[Chana3812]

:pat: Jon, your wealth of knowledge (and the ability to find the info) never ceases to amaze me :cheerlead

[Gold9472]

:pat: Jon, your wealth of knowledge (and the ability to find the info) never ceases to amaze me :cheerlead

Thanks.

[Gold9472]

Britain Freezing Talks With Iran
Britain Freezing Talks With Iran on Other Issues Until 15 Royal Navy Crewmembers Released

http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2988102

By DAVID STRINGER

LONDON Mar 28, 2007 (AP)— Britain said it was freezing talks on all other issues with Iran until it freed 15 Royal Navy crew members seized last week, and the British military released what it said was proof its boats were within Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.

Iran's foreign minister said meanwhile a female British sailor held captive by Iran may be released later Wednesday or on Thursday, a Turkish TV station reported.

"The woman soldier is free either today or tomorrow," CNN-Turk television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on the sidelines of an Arab summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the woman, identified as sailor Faye Turney, 26, had been given privacy.

Britain's military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when Iran seized the sailors and marines on Friday.

Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position 2 miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters a claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," Style said.

Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines.

Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons that "there was no justification whatever … for their detention, it was completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal."

"We had hoped to see their immediate release; this has not happened. It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure in order to make sure the Iranian government understands its total isolation on this issue," Blair said.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain had frozen bilateral talks with Iran on all other issues until Tehran frees the crew.

"No one should be in any doubt about the seriousness with which we regard these events," Beckett told lawmakers.

Blair said he believed the crew acted sensibly in not putting up fight after being confronted by six Iranian vessels.

"If they had engaged in military combat at that stage, there would have undoubtedly been severe loss of life. I think they took the right decision and did what was entirely sensible," Blair said.

Britain and the United States have said the crew was intercepted after completing a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border between Iran and Iraq has been disputed for centuries.

Iran has said the 15 were being treated well, but refused to say where they were being held, or rule out the possibility that they could be brought to trial for allegedly entering Iranian waters.

The Iranian Embassy statement said: "We are confident that Iranian and British governments are capable of resolving this security case through their close contacts and cooperation."

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the case was following normal procedures, holding out the possibility that the Britons could be brought to trial.

He said the Britons were being treated well and that the only woman among the sailors, 26-year-old Faye Turney, had been given privacy.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," Hosseini told The Associated Press.

In talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Beckett demanded that British diplomats be allowed to meet with the crew to make their own assessment.

[Gold9472]

ABCNews is reporting that Faye Turney is being released on Thursday.

[Gold9472]

Iran shows video of captured Britons

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4668599.html

3/28/2007

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian state TV showed video Wednesday of the 15 British sailors and marines who were seized last week, including a female captive who wore a white tunic and a black head scarf and said the British boats "had trespassed" in Iranian waters.

The British government protested Iran's broadcast of the captured crew as "completely unacceptable." The British military had earlier released what it called proof that its boats were in the territorial waters of Iraq — not Iran — when they were seized.

"Obviously we trespassed into their waters," British sailor Faye Turney said on the video broadcast by Al-Alam, an Arabic-language, Iranian state-run television station that is carried across the Middle East.

"They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested, there was no harm, no aggression," she said.

Turney, 26, was shown eating with sailors and marines. At another point, she was seen sitting in a room with a floral curtains, smoking a cigarette.

"My name is leading sailman Faye Turney. I come from England. I have served in Foxtrot 99. I've been in the navy for nine years," she said.

Turney was the only person to be shown speaking in the video.

It also showed what appeared to be a handwritten letter from Turney to her family. The letter said, in part, "I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters."

The video also showed a brief scene of what appeared to be the British crew sitting in an Iranian boat in open waters immediately after their capture.

Before the video was broadcast, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions.

"It's completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television," the British Foreign Office said in a statement after the broadcast. "There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters."

The statement also demanded that British diplomats be given immediate access to them as a "prelude" to their release.

Britain earlier said it was freezing most contacts with Iran until it freed all the crew members.

Britain's military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when Iran seized the sailors and marines on Friday after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The border between Iran and Iraq has been disputed for centuries.

Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday — a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position two miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters — a claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," Style said.

Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki denied this, saying, "That's not true. It happened in Iranian territorial waters."

Mottaki also told The Associated Press in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that Turney would be released Wednesday or Thursday, and he suggested that the British vessels' alleged entry into Iranian waters may have been a mistake.

"This is a violation that just happened. It could be natural. They did not resist," he told the AP.

"Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released," Mottaki said Wednesday on the sidelines of an Arab summit in the Saudi capital, referring to Turney, the only woman among the 15.

The Iranian Embassy in London also said: "We are confident that Iranian and British governments are capable of resolving this security case through their close contacts and cooperation."

Britain's military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when Iran seized the sailors and marines on Friday.

Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday — a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position two miles east, placing the British inside Iranian waters — a claim he said was not verified by global positioning system coordinates.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," Style said.

Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees 50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant ship boarded by the sailors and marines.

Mottaki denied this, saying, "That's not true. It happened in Iranian territorial waters."

Britain and the United States have said the crew was intercepted after completing a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border between Iran and Iraq has been disputed for centuries.

Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons that "there was no justification whatever ... for their detention, it was completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal."

"We had hoped to see their immediate release; this has not happened. It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure in order to make sure the Iranian government understands its total isolation on this issue," Blair said.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she had suspended bilateral talks on all other issues with Tehran until the 15 were released. Visits by officials will be stopped, issuing visas to Iranian officials suspended and British support for events such as trade missions put on hold, her office said.

"No one should be in any doubt about the seriousness with which we regard these events," Beckett told the House of Commons.

Beckett said Britain had now begun a "new phase of diplomatic activity," following Iran's failure to release the sailors and marines, or allow British officials access.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal had offered support, Beckett said.

Blair said he believed the crew acted sensibly in not putting up a fight after being confronted by six Iranian vessels.

"If they had engaged in military combat at that stage, there would have undoubtedly been severe loss of life. I think they took the right decision and did what was entirely sensible," Blair said.

In Iran, the announcement by a newscaster on Al-Alam satellite TV on the planned broadcast of the video of the captives did not specify when it would be shown. Al-Alam is an Arabic-language, Iranian state-run television station that is carried across the Middle East.

Iran had promised British officials in talks that it would not show the sailors on television as it did with a group captured in 2004 — a senior British foreign office diplomat said earlier Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with British government rules.

Iran has said the 15 were being treated well, but refused to say where they were being held, or rule out the possibility that they could be brought to trial for allegedly entering Iranian waters.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Britons were being treated well.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," Hosseini told the AP.

In talks with Mottaki, Beckett demanded that British diplomats be allowed to meet with the crew to make their own assessment.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Iran's behavior was "fully unacceptable" and assured Britain of its full support in negotiations to win their release.

"The EU finds it fully unacceptable that 15 British troops have been captured and detained by Iran. We extend our absolute support and solidarity with Britain on this issue," Merkel told the European Parliament

[Gold9472]

Iran broadcasts British sailor's apology

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4674549.html

By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer
3/30/2007

TEHRAN, Iran — One of the 15 British service members held captive in Iran appeared Friday on the government's Arabic-language TV and apologized for entering Iranian waters "without permission."

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iran cannot gain anything from the current crisis. The British Foreign Office denounced the broadcast and said displaying the captives for "propaganda purposes" was "outrageous."

The serviceman, Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers, said he was aware that the incident in which he was seized was the second time since 2004 that British military personnel had entered Iranian waters.

"Again I deeply apologize for entering your waters," Summers said in the clip broadcast on Al-Alam television. "We trespassed without permission."

In London, the British Foreign Office denounced the broadcast and said displaying the captives for "propaganda purposes" was "outrageous."

Summers was shown sitting with another male serviceman and the female British sailor Faye Turney against a floral curtain. Both men wore camouflage fatigues with a label saying "Royal Navy" on their chests and a small British flag stitched to their left sleeves.

The three were among 15 British sailors and marines detained by naval units of the Revolutionary Guards on March 23 while patrolling near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway for smugglers.

Britain has demanded their release, insisting that they were in Iraqi waters at the time they were intercepted. But Iran has demanded that Britain acknowledge that its sailors had violated Iranian waters, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying Thursday that such an admission would help to secure their release.

Minutes before Summers appeared on TV, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said that he had given a statement.

"We entered Iranian waters without permission and we were detained by Iranian coast guards. I would like to apologize for this to the Iranian people," the agency quoted him as saying.

"Since our detention on March 23, everything has been very good and I'm completely satisfied about the situation," Summers added.

The TV showed pictures of the light British naval boats at the time of the sailors' seizure. The helicopter flying in the background was British, the Al-Alam newscaster said.

Iran has demanded that Britain acknowledge that its sailors had violated Iranian waters, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying Thursday that such an admission would help to secure the release of the 15 service members.

Earlier this week, it appeared the two countries were moving toward a resolution of the crisis. Mottaki told reporters Wednesday that Turney would be freed shortly.

However, the Iranians were angered by tough talk out of London, including a freeze on most bilateral contacts and a British move to refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council.

On Thursday, the council expressed "grave concern" over Iran's seizure of the military personnel and called for an early resolution of the escalating dispute.

As tensions spiked again Thursday, the Iranians rolled back on their offer to free Turney.

On Friday, however, the Turkish prime minister's office said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated his government is willing to reconsider freeing Turney, who is married and has a young daughter.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Ahmadinejad on Thursday evening, said Erdogan's spokesman, Akif Beki. Ahmadinejad told the prime minister that Iran was "willing to reconsider the issue of the release of the woman crew member," Beki said.

Iran claims the British sailors and marines, part of a Royal Navy force patrolling the Persian Gulf for smugglers, were operating in its waters when captured last Friday. The incident came several months into the escalating standoff between Iran and the United Nations over Tehran's nuclear program.

An Iranian news agency reported earlier in the day that Iran's Foreign Ministry sent a message to the British embassy in Tehran calling for a guarantee by London to avoid violating Iranian territorial waters in the future.

Until now, Iran has said the matter could only be resolved if Britain admitted its sailors were trespassing.

Crude oil prices kept soaring Friday as a jittery market worried that oil exports could be affected by the British-Iranian crisis.

After settling at a six-month high a day earlier, light, sweet crude futures rose another 45 cents to $66.48 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Trading settled Thursday at $66.03 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — the highest settlement price since Sept. 8, 2006, when crude finished at $66.25.

[Gold9472]

I can't wait for someone on the right to say, "He was probably tortured into apologizing. We can't trust what he's saying because of that."

[Gold9472]

Click Here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/tvseq/od/bbc2/bb/rm/video/newsnight_bb.ram) (realplayer)

[beltman713]

I can't wait for someone on the right to say, "He was probably tortured into apologizing. We can't trust what he's saying because of that."
But we can trust everything KSM said while he was being tortured.

[Gold9472]

US rejects Iran captives exchange
Faye Turney said her captors had been 'friendly'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6512927.stm

3/31/2007

US officials have ruled out a deal to exchange 15 Royal Navy personnel captured in the Gulf for five Iranians seized by American forces in Iraq.

State department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected suggestions that a swap could be made.

The five, believed to be members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, were seized in January in the Iraqi city of Irbil.

Britain denies Iran's claims that the UK crew was in its waters when seized on 23 March.

The five Iranians were captured in a raid along with equipment which the Americans say shows clear Iranian links to networks supplying Iraqi insurgents with technology and weapons.

US officials have condemned Iran's actions and publicly supported the UK.

Mr McCormack said: "The international community is not going to stand for the Iranian government trying to use this issue to distract the rest of the world from the situation in which Iran finds itself vis-a-vis its nuclear programme."

Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to Russia has said the UK captives could face trial for violating international law.

"It is possible that the British soldiers who entered into Iranian waters will go on trial for taking this illegal action," Gholamreza Ansari told Russian television channel Vesti-24, according to Iran's IRNA news agency.

Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned Iran for "parading" the UK crew on television in a way which would only "enhance people's sense of disgust".

In what appeared to be an edited broadcast on an Iranian channel, sailor Nathan Thomas Summers said: "I would like to apologise for entering your waters without permission."

'Sacrificed'
He was shown alongside two colleagues, including Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, from Shropshire, who was broadcast apologising to Iran earlier in the week.

A third letter, allegedly from LS Turney, was released on Friday in which she said she had been "sacrificed" to UK and US government policy.

The BBC has been able to confirm the names of six of the 15 captured sailors and marines.

Along with LS Turney and Nathan Summers, who is from Cornwall, they are Paul Barton from Southport, Danny Masterton from Ayrshire, Joe Tindall from south London and Adam Sperry from Leicester.

European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Bremen, Germany, called for "the immediate and unconditional release" of the sailors and expressed "unconditional support" for Britain's position.

UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the latest footage as "quite appalling" and "blatant propaganda".

She also disclosed there was nothing in a formal letter from the Iranians to the UK that suggested they were looking for a solution to "this difficult situation".

'Not harmed'
In the latest video, Nathan Summers says: "Since we've been arrested in Iran our treatment has been very friendly.

"We have not been harmed at all. They've looked after us really well.

"The food they've been serving us is good and I am grateful that no harm has come to us.

"I would just like to apologise for entering your waters without permission. And that happened back in 2004, and the government promised that it wouldn't happen again."

BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood said last year US President Bush gave a secret order that Iranian agents believed working in Iraq should be captured or killed because of the coalition's belief that Iran was "fermenting trouble in Iraq".

He said it meant there was a "compelling theory" that the UK sailors were captured as a result of an order "from the highest levels of Iranian government" which would make it a "very different game" for the Foreign Office to sort out.

Earlier, the UN Security Council called on Tehran to allow the UK access to the personnel and urges an "early resolution", including release of the crew, but stopped short of "deploring" Iran's action, as requested by the UK.

The Britons, based on HMS Cornwall, were seized by Revolutionary Guards as they returned from searching a vessel in the northern Gulf.

[Gold9472]

But we can trust everything KSM said while he was being tortured.

Ding.

[thumper]

IBgulfoftonkin part 2

[Gold9472]

Volley of bricks, stones and death chants

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2412776.ece

By Angus McDowall in Tehran
Published:^02 April 2007

A volley of stones and bricks landed on the embassy gates. Between them and the high brick wall stood an unsmiling cordon of riot police, shields raised and helmets down. "Death to England, Death to America!" shouted the several hundred Iranian student protesters. An occasional loud bang reverberated along the street as another firecracker was loosed.

The police surged forwards, forcing back the demonstrators with batons and occasional squirts of pepper spray. Young men with scarves tied over their faces hung from street signs waving flags and placards. They demanded the closure of the embassy, the expulsion of the ambassador and a trial for the 15 British sailors and marines held captive by Iran.

Mostly drawn from one of Tehran's more hardline universities, Shahid Beheshti, the 200 or so students were having a good time. Away from the press cameras at the centre of the protest, where they looked angry and fierce, they were laughing and nudging each other conspiratorially. "You're English?" asked one with a grin. "Death to England! Ha ha ha."

A slightly older man, from the Basij militia to which most of these students belong, gestured to the diminishing crowd. "Look there are hundreds of people here... or even thousands. It proves Iranians hate Mr Blair."

A bare hundred yards from the officially approved demonstration stood a family of onlookers eating ice creams. A couple of hundred yards further on people seemed barely aware a demonstration was happening. It gave a slightly surreal air to the riot police and the stone throwing. A hubcap sailed over the embassy wall like a Frisbee.

Right in front of the cameras stood the grizzled cheerleader of revolutionary demonstrations, who goes by the nom de guerre Haji Bakhshi. He was surrounded by fierce young men, their eyes lit up with fervour and their fists pumping the air. At the fringe of his raging group militant students were taking photographs with their mobile phones.

Haji Bakhshi is always at demonstrations. Dressed in combat fatigues, and sporting a leonine grey beard, the veteran often leads the chants. After winning a name for blind courage in the Iran-Iraq war, he returned to a country where backsliders had undermined revolutionary values. He now drives around Tehran yelling at improperly dressed girls from a bullet-riddled jeep.

A sudden surge of police pushed the protesters back across the road and gradually traffic started to slide through. After a final few roars of Islamic opprobrium the crowd dispersed, pushed backwards by the riot police. A dozen women students in chadors were left, brandishing forlorn signs demanding the embassy be closed.

[Gold9472]

It wouldn't surprise me if they were paid opposition. Who in their right mind would invite the United States to bomb the shit out of them?

[Gold9472]

Iranian radio reports 'positive changes'

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4680343.html

By NASSER KARIMI Associated Press Writer
4/2/2007

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian state radio reported that all 15 British sailors and marines held captive by Iran have confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters but, in an apparent softening in the dispute, said their statements would not air because of "positive changes" from Britain.

The softer tone was apparently mirrored in London, where an official said Britain has agreed to consider discussing with Iran how to avoid future disputes over contested waters in the Persian Gulf.

Britain, however, wants an unconditional release of the crew and is not "negotiating" for their freedom, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the crisis. Iran has demanded an apology from Britain as a condition for the release of the crew, who were seized March 23.

Britain contends the sailors were in Iraqi waters, however, and has said it would not apologize. It has also criticized the airing of footage of four of the sailors confessing so far, saying the statements appeared coerced and the broadcasting of captured military personnel violated international norms.

In video Sunday, the captives appeared on the state-run Arabic-language TV channel Al-Alam in separate clips, pointing at the same map of the Persian Gulf.

The first sailor, who was identified as Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air, said the Iranians supplied the group with GPS coordinates which he said were "apparently" in Iranian waters.

Air pointed with a pen to a location on the map where he said two boats left a warship of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq around 8:30 a.m. on March 23. He said the seven marines and eight navy sailors were captured around 10 a.m.

He said "we were seized apparently at this point here on their maps and on the GPS they've shown us, which is inside Iranian territorial waters."

The second sailor, identified as Lt. Felix Carman, pointed to an area on the map and said that location was where he and the 14 others were arrested.

"I'd like to say to the Iranian people, I can understand why you are so angry about our intrusion into your waters," he said.

In a letter sent in response to a note from Iranian officials, Britain agreed to consider discussions about how to avoid similar disputes in the future, said the British official. Britain's response — most of which has been kept secret — may have prompted the report Monday from Iran's state-run radio.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman earlier in the day called the broadcast confessions "stage-managed," and said Britain had not changed its demand for the sailors' unconditional release.

"The Iranians know our position, they know that stage-managed TV appearances are not going to affect our position," the spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. "They know we have strong international support."

Ministers were scheduled to hold a government crisis committee meeting later Monday.

Iran's ambassador to Moscow had said on Sunday that the sailors' case had entered a "legal phase," but backtracked from earlier remarks attributed to him that the sailors could be tried.

The alleged admissions of intrusion into Iranian territorial waters are not entirely new: Iran's military chief had said the day after their capture that the sailors had confessed after interrogations to illegally entering Iranian waters.

On Sunday, Iran's Arabic-language state television station, Al-Alam, broadcast footage of two of the sailors using maps to show that they were in Iranian waters when they were surrounded and seized by Iranian military vessels.

Britain has released its own maps and GPS coordinates showing their location to be in Iraqi waters at the time of the capture.

The 15 Britons were detained by Iranian naval units on March 23 while patrolling for smugglers as part of a U.N.-mandated force monitoring the Persian Gulf. They were seized by Iranian naval units near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway that has long been a disputed dividing line between Iraq and Iran.

The newscaster said the two had confessed to "illegally" trespassing in Iranian waters.

Al-Alam broadcast longer videos of the Britons earlier this week, including footage on Friday of captured marine Nathan Thomas Summers apologizing for entering Iranian waters "without permission" and admitting to trespassing in Iranian waters.

Al-Alam also aired video on Wednesday showing Faye Turney, the only woman in the group, wearing a headscarf and saying: "Obviously we trespassed." Iran has also made public three letters purportedly written by Turney. The last letter contained an apology.

[Gold9472]

Blair: Next 2 days 'fairly critical'

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4683476.html

(Gold9472: Call me a conspiracy theorist, but this seems to coincide with the date given by Russian Intelligence.)

By DAVID STRINGER Associated Press Writer
4/3/2007

LONDON — The next two days are "fairly critical" to resolving the dispute over a seized British navy crew, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday, after Iran's chief international negotiator offered a new approach to end the standoff with Tehran.

Blair told Scotland's Real Radio that Ali Larijani's suggestion of talks offered hope of an end to the crisis. "If they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way the door is open," the prime minister said.

But if negotiations to win the quick release of the 15 sailors and marines stalled, Britain would "take an increasingly tougher position," he said.

The navy crew was detained March 23 by naval units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards while the Britons patrolled for smugglers near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway that long has been a disputed dividing line between Iraq and Iran.

Iran says the team was in Iranian waters. Britain insists it was in Iraqi waters working under a U.N. mandate.

Iran has previously demanded an apology from Britain as a condition for the sailors' release.

Blair said Tuesday that Britain had two options in its approaches with Tehran.

"One is to try settle this by way of peaceful and calm negotiation to get our people back as quickly as possible," he said. "The other is to make it clear that if that is not possible that we have to take an increasingly tougher position."

On Monday, Larijani said that Iran sought "to solve the problem through proper diplomatic channels" and proposed having a delegation determine whether British forces had strayed into Iranian territory in the Persian Gulf. He did not say what sort of delegation he had in mind.

Larijani told Britain's Channel 4 news Monday through an interpreter that Iranian officials "definitely believe that this issue can be resolved and there is no need for any trial."

Earlier Monday, an Iranian state-run television station said all 15 of the detained Royal Navy personnel had confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters before they were captured.

However, Iranian state-run radio said the confessions would not be broadcast because of what it called "positive changes" in the negotiating stance of Britain, whose leaders have been angered by the airing of videos of the captives.

The radio did not elaborate on the supposed changes by the British. But in London, a British official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Prime Minister Tony Blair's government had agreed to consider ways to avoid such situations in the future.

The official insisted Britain was not negotiating with the Iranians and still wanted the captives freed unconditionally.

Over the weekend, The Sunday Telegraph of London said Britain was considering sending a senior Royal Navy officer to Tehran to discuss the return of the captives as well as to talk about ways to avoid future incidents.

Larijani also urged Britain to guarantee "that such violation will not be repeated," but avoided repeating Tehran's demand for an apology. British leaders have insisted they have nothing to apologize for.

The comments suggested the sides were seeking a face-facing formula in which each could argue its interests were upheld while the captives could go free. Under such a formula, Iran could claim Britain tacitly acknowledged the border area is in dispute, and Britain could maintain it never apologized.

A generation ago, such a formula helped free Americans held by Tehran for 444 days. The United States pledged not to interfere in Iranian affairs, enabling the hostage takers to claim they had achieved their goal.

The renewed diplomatic efforts between Iran and Britain followed tough rhetoric last week that prompted both governments to dig in their heels.

Britain suspended all other diplomatic contacts with Iran, froze work to support trade missions and stopped issuing visas to Iranian diplomats. It also sought help from the U.N. and other countries, including Muslim Turkey, to press Iran to free the captives.

Those moves prompted Iran to suspend plans to free the only woman captive, sailor Faye Turney, and to suggest the Britons might face trial.

To reinforce their claims, the Iranians also broadcast video footage that showed four of the crew saying they were captured in Iranian waters. In footage Sunday, two of the sailors used maps to show the purported location where they were seized.

Britain has released its own maps and GPS coordinates showing the captured team's location to be in Iraqi waters.

The videos enraged British officials, who said the broadcast confessions were clearly made under duress.

[Gold9472]

Iran to release 15 British marines and sailors

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Iran_to_grant_amnesty_to_15_0404.html

Michael Roston
Published: Wednesday April 4, 2007

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in a press conference today that he would grant an amnesty to and release the 15 British marines and sailors who were detained while patrolling the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, according to a breaking report on CNN.

A translation of Ahmadinejad's remarks showed him calling on British authorities to avoid prosecuting the sailors and marines once they had been freed for speaking in Iranian broadcasts about the circumstances of their detention.

According to an unofficial transcript of Ahamdinejad's statement acquired by RAW STORY, he said the following:

"I declare that the people of Iran and the Government of Iran in full power and given their legal rights to place on trial the military people, to give amnesty and pardon to these 15 people. And I announce their freeing and their return to the people of Britain. I request the government of Mr. Blair not to question these people or to place them on trial for speaking the truth and I request Mr. Blair, rather than to increase the international controversy or call for the occupation of other lands, to take them toward peace, truthfulness and justice to serve the people of England."

The official Islamic Republic News Agency also stated that the release of the British service members was occasioned by upcoming holidays.

"The amnesty was granted on the auspicious occasion of birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and the Christian Easter festivity," according to the wire story.

Additionally, an AP report, showed Ahmadinejad criticized the British for deploying a woman in its Navy.

"He criticized Britain for deploying Leading Seaman Faye Turney, one of the 15 detainees, in the Gulf, pointing out that she is a woman with a child," they noted.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour stated they will be set free at the end of the press conference in Iran.

The announcement came during a press conference in which Iran's president said he would give medals who took the British service members into custody.

Subsequently, the United Kingdom sent a letter to Iran declaring that further incursions into Iran's territory would not recur, CNN reported.

[beltman713]

Damn, he's playing good president bad president.

[Gold9472]

US offered to scare Iran

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_offered_to_scare_Iran_04072007.html

Published: Saturday April 7, 2007

The United States reportedly offered to mount aggressive air patrols over Revolutionary Guards bases during Iran's stand-off with Britain but was rebuffed by London.

Citing unnamed diplomatic sources, The Guardian newspaper said that Pentagon officials offered a series of military options, but Britain told them to keep out of the affair and instead tone down armed forces activity in the Gulf.

One of the options involved combat aircraft patrolling over Iranian bases to show how serious the incident was, the newspaper said in a front page story.

On March 20, three days before the 15 British marines were seized at gunpoint in the Gulf, a second US aircraft carrier group arrived in the region.

At London's request, the two carrier groups, totalling 40 ships plus aircraft, changed their exercises to make them appear less confrontational, the newspaper said.

Britain also asked the United States to ensure it kept the rhetoric low-key, The Guardian said.

It reported that a consensus was emerging among British, Iraqi and Iranian officials as to what happened when the Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines were seized -- namely that it was not something planned by Tehran.

London maintains they were mounting a routine anti-smuggling patrol in Iraqi waters, while Tehran insists they trespassed into Iranian waters.

"My best guess is that this was a local incident which became an international incident," a British source closely involved in the stand-off told the newspaper.

A senior Iranian source close to the Revolutionary Guards told The Guardian: "If this had been between Iranian and American soldiers it could have been the beginning of an accidental war."

The source claimed that British forces had illegally entered Iranian waters three times in three months leading up to the capture, which was decided upon by a regional commander.

[beltman713]

It's good to see the British are a bit more level headed than American leaders. Bush is just itching to get something started with Iran.

[Gold9472]

Yup.