LONDON, March 29 — Iran leveled new accusations against Britain on Thursday in the crisis over 15 captured British sailors and marines and withdrew a promise to free a woman sailor, insisting that Britain admit fault before any captives are released.
Iran also released what it said was a second letter from a captured British sailor — Faye Turney, the only woman among the captives — urging Britain to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
For its part, Britain flatly refused any talk of negotiations and called the release of the letter “cruel and callous.” It said it would seek the Security Council’s support in pressuring Iran to release the captives.
With the latest developments, the confrontation, now in its seventh day, seemed to have reached a point where neither side has left the other much room for a face-saving compromise. Deepening the sense of crisis, a senior Iranian official hinted Thursday that the captured Britons might be put on trial for unspecified offenses.
It is not clear what further countermeasures Britain might take. Iran has not said where the 15 Britons are being held, so the prospects of a rescue attempt — similar to the failed American bid to free the embassy hostages in April 1980 — seemed uncertain.
The increasingly intractable dispute turns on rival claims as to the whereabouts of the eight British sailors and seven marines when they were seized on March 23 in disputed waters. Iran says they were more than 500 yards inside its territorial waters, but Britain produced satellite navigation coordinates on Wednesday to support its contention that the Britons were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters on patrols approved by the United Nations and the Iraqi government.
After showing footage of the captured sailors and marines on Wednesday, Iranian television showed film on Thursday of what seemed to be a lone British patrol boat being apprehended by an Iranian vessel with a mounted machine gun.
The footage on Wednesday and Thursday included images of Ms. Turney, a 26-year-old mother of one. Prime Minister Tony Blair called the decision to show pictures of her a “disgrace.”
“What we have to do in a very firm way is to step up the pressure,” Mr. Blair said in an interview with ITV television. “The important thing is we just keep making it very, very clear to the Iranian government it is not a situation that will be relieved by anything but the unconditional release of all our people.
“What you can’t do is end up negotiating over hostages, end up saying there’s some quid pro quo or tit for tat,” Mr. Blair said. “That’s not acceptable.”
He added: “We need all 15 released because they were doing their job under a U.N. mandate. There is no justification whatsoever for taking them in that way.”
In what the Iranian authorities said was a second letter, Ms. Turney asked when British forces would withdraw from Iraq. It was dated March 27 and addressed to “Representative of the House of Commons.’
It said, in part:
“I would like you all to know of the treatment I have received here. The Iranian people are kind, considerate, warm, compassionate and very hospitable.”
Echoing the first letter, released Wednesday, this one said, “Unfortunately, during the course of our mission we entered into Iranian waters.”
But it broke new ground by urging a British withdrawal from Iraq. “Isn’t it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?” the letter said.
It was signed: Faye Turney 27/3/07.
Mr. Blair’s office reacted angrily, issuing a statement saying, “It is cruel and callous to do this to someone in this position, and to play games like this is a disgrace.”
Britain said it would seek United Nations backing against Iran in the dispute, even as Iran hardened its stance over the planned release of Ms. Turney.
Initially, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. had indicated that Ms. Turner might still be freed if Britain retreated from its intention to seek United Nations backing. He said that “if we are faced with a fuss and wrong behavior,” her release “would be suspended and it would not take place.”
Later, though, the Mehr news agency in Tehran quoted a military commander, Alireza Afshar, as saying: “The release of a female British soldier has been suspended. The wrong behavior of those who live in London caused the suspension.”
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, told Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, that the 15 Britons ought to be freed immediately.
“The secretary general strongly suggested that they should be released, that this was an issue of great importance to the international community,” said a United Nations official familiar with the breakfast discussion.
The official, who said he could not be quoted by name talking about a private meeting, said Mr. Ban “avoided any discussion of ‘Was it here, was it there, was it this, was it that?______________________________________________________________
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