Gunner's Blog

LONDON, March 28 — Britain's dispute with Iran over 15 captured sailors and marines escalated sharply today when Britain froze all "bilateral business" with Tehran and Iran displayed some British prisoners on state television — an act condemned by the Foreign Office here as "completely unacceptable."

One of the captured sailors, Faye Turney, 26, the only woman among them, was shown wearing a black head-scarf and saying "obviously we trespassed into their waters." She also praised her captors as "very friendly, very hospitable and very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we had been arrested."

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, attending a meeting in Saudi Arabia, had indicated earlier that Ms. Turney could be released soon. "There was no hurt or harm," Ms. Turney said in the television footage. "They were very, very compassionate."

Iranian authorities also made public what they said was a letter written Thursday by Ms. Turney to her family saying: "We were out in the boats when we were arrested by Iranian forces as we had apparently gone into Iranian waters. I wish we hadn't because then I would be home with you all right now. I'm so sorry we did because I know we wouldn't be here now if we hadn't. I want you all to know that I am well and safe.

"I am being well looked after, I am fed three meals a day and I'm in constant supply of fluids," the letter said. Her words were addressed in part to her three-year-old daughter Molly and husband Adam.

The circumstances in which she recorded her words and wrote the letter were not clear. Some of the captured Britons were shown in a room eating a meal with her, but it was also not clear the extent to which the tape had been edited. In one section she was wearing a black and white checkered head-dress and in another a black head scarf.

After the video tape was broadcast, Margaret Beckett, the British Foreign Secretary, said that she was concerned about "any indication of pressure on, or coercion of, our personnel."

British officials have been denied access to the captured sailors and their whereabouts were not disclosed. Britain renewed its demand on Thursday for the release of its sailors.

Ms. Turney's remarks contradicted insistence in London that the British sailors had been in Iraqi waters where they patrol under Iraqi and United Nations auspices to interdict smugglers and protect oil installations.

Earlier Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament that the British sailors, captured on March 23, were acting legally and in Iraqi waters.

"It is now time to ratchet up international and diplomatic pressure in order to make sure that the Iranian government understands their total isolation on this issue," he told parliament.

The Royal Navy also took the highly unusual step of making public charts, photographs and previously secret navigational coordinates purportedly proving that the British sailors were 1.7 nautical miles - roughly 1.95 miles on land - inside Iraqi waters when they were apprehended at gun-point and forced into Iranian waters.

The toughened British posture heightened the sense of crisis that has sent oil prices soaring.

The Royal Navy's disclosures opened a coordinated diplomatic barrage by some of the most senior British officials, including Mr. Blair and Mrs. Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, who told parliament that Britain would "be imposing a freeze on all other official bilateral business with Iran until the situation is resolved."

"The Iranian authorities have so far failed to meet any of our demands or responded to our desire to resolve this issue quickly and quietly, through behind the scenes diplomacy," Mrs. Beckett said, explaining Britain's decision to go public and offer some kind of retaliation, if only symbolic.

The government had been under political pressure at home to show itself as more muscular after being accused in newspaper editorials of being timid toward Iran. At the same time, though, many analysts said Mr. Blair had embarked on a risky strategy that could backfire if Iran responded to pressure by digging in its heels and refusing to free its captives.

The decision by Iranian television to show footage of the 15 captives rekindled memories of a similar episode in 2004 when eight other British captives were paraded blindfolded on Iranian television.

Britain has little direct official bilateral business with Iran beyond sporting and cultural ties and some humanitarian assistance to refugees and earthquake victims, according to an assessment on the Foreign Office website (http://www.fco.gov.uk/).

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, visited Iran in 2004 to show concern after the Bam earthquake.

Britain's more significant diplomatic and political business with Iran is conducted as part of a troika of European nations along with France and Germany pressing Iran to limit its nuclear ambitions.

While the impact of the prohibition on official business was, therefore, unclear, it seemed to reflect the first formal reprisal by Britain in response to the seizure of its personnel, designed to show, in Mrs. Beckett's words to parliament, "the seriousness with which we regard these events."

"This is not going as far as breaking off diplomatic relations," said Lord Norman Lamont, the head of the British-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, "but it is upping the ante." In parliament, the government's actions received support from a broad consensus across party lines.

The publication of the British data followed a warning by Mr. Blair on Thursday that the dispute would enter a "different phase" if the sailors were not released. In parliament on Wednesday the Prime Minister called the seizure of the British personnel "completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal" and renewed calls for their immediate return.

Vice Admiral Charles Style told a news briefing that British authorities "unambiguously contest" Iranian assertions that the sailors were in Iranian waters. He also accused Iranian forces of ambushing the British naval personnel — seven Royal Marines and eight sailors. Vice Admiral Style did not offer to answer questions.

He said that, in secret diplomatic contacts, Iran had produced two conflicting sets of coordinates to bolster its case, the first placing the British soldiers in Iraqi waters where, Britain says, they were on a routine anti-smuggling patrol authorized by the United Nations and the Iraqi government.

An Iranian statement said Tehran had "sufficient evidence" to prove that the British sailors had penetrated 0.5 kilometers — roughly 500 yards — into Iranian waters.

Vice Admiral Style said the British boarding party in two inflatable boats had boarded an Indian-flagged naval vessel on March 23 after observing it unloading cars. He said the boarding took place at these coordinates: 29 degrees 50.36 minutes North, 04 degrees 43.08 minutes east. That placed it 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters, he said.

In diplomatic contacts last week, he added, Iran had provided Britain with an initial set of coordinates for the position of the boats that placed the incident in Iraqi waters.

"We pointed this out to them on Sunday in diplomatic contacts," Vice Admiral Style said. "After we did this they then provided a second set of coordinates that places the incident in Iranian waters" over two nautical miles away from where they were said to be by Britain, he said.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates," he said. The Navy said the sailors in two boats had formed a boarding party from H.M.S. Cornwall, a frigate patrolling in Iraqi waters.

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It appears that the Iranian's are going to keep pushing to start a shooting war with the US & the Brits. If they don't stop this nonsense and keep pushing and does start a war, we will be forced to finish it.

I saw a great statement on the Patriot Files Forum that proposed that the Brits sink an Iranian Naval Warship each day until the 15 sailors and Marines are returned to British Authorities. I have a better idea, sink two a day!

It appears that Pres. Ahmadinejad is hiding behind a claim that the sailors were taken by a rogue element. Even if that is true, it is he and his governments job to correct the situation. Whether the Iranian Navy did the dirty deed or not is not relevant. I think that they truly believe that they can get away with it. Maybe, but only if they are returned unharmed, VERY SOON!

~G

Labels: British Navy, Foreign Secretary Beckett, HMS Cornwall, Iran, Iranian, Marines, Mottaki, Royal Navy, Sailors, Tony Blair, Turney

| Link | Posted by ~G @ 6:36 PM  | 2 comments