Iran Takes Harder Line in Dispute Over Britons

By ALAN COWELL

Published: March 29, 2007

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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Britain seeks to build diplomatic pressure on Iran in attempt to free captive personnel

Top Stories

Julian Borger and Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Ian Black in Riyadh
Friday March 30, 2007
The Guardian

Britain was attempting yesterday to isolate Iran over its week-old detention of 15 marines and sailors, but there were no immediate signs that the diplomatic offensive had brought their release any closer. British diplomats were hopeful that international solidarity would force Iran's rulers to rethink and focused on rallying the international community to Britain's cause.

In New York last night, the UN security council issued a statement of rebuke for Iran's seizure of the British naval patrol last Friday. The statement, which expressed "grave concern" at the capture of the sailors, called on Tehran to allow consular access to the captured Britons and for an early resolution of the dispute and their release.

The wording, produced after four hours of debate, was less forceful than Britain had wanted. Russia balked at calls for the immediate release of the navy personnel, and for language saying they had been seized in Iraqi waters. But diplomats said they were satisfied the statement sent a clear message to Tehran.

Britain hopes a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bremen today will issue a sharper statement. It was encouraged by France's decision to summon Iran's ambassador to Paris to the foreign ministry to demand the Britons' swift release. The EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, took a tough line yesterday, calling for an end to the "illegal" detention. "What Iran has to do is to liberate immediately all the soldiers," Mr Solana told reporters. "We want to have good relations with Iran, and this does not help."

In meetings at an Arab League summit in Riyadh, Arab diplomats and the UN's secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, also added pressure on Iran to free the captives. British officials said they were pleased with the level of Arab support and said some Gulf states were concerned about a recent rise in Iranian naval incursions into their own territorial waters.

Mr Ban raised the fate of the detainees with Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki. A UN statement said he had expressed his wish "to see an early resolution of this problem".

Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, also raised the issue of the captives in talks with Mr Mottaki. "We had a good meeting with the Iranian minister," Mr Zebari said. "I passed on a message asking for the release of the soldiers. They are working at our invitation - they are part of the MNF [multi-national force in Iraq]. Our information is that they were detained in Iraqi territorial waters. But really I felt a sense that they [Iran] want to resolve the issue." Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said last night: "This is a very unfortunate incident. We are afraid it's going to add to the tension that exists in the Gulf ..."

"Some of us who have relations with Iran are in contact with Iran but I wish I had good news that they will be released. We don't need any added inflammatory incidents in the Gulf and we feel for the families of those soldiers." The unexpectedly quiet voice in yesterday's international chorus of disapproval was America's. The White House has deliberately played down the stand-off at Britain's request. The US and British governments discussed whether it would be helpful to cancel military exercises in the region but the conclusion was to go ahead.

US officials said there was no prospect of a swap of six Iranians arrested in Iraq for the 15 British personnel and Britain had not asked for this. But the Americans could raise their profile as the crisis continues. The expectation in Washington is that the stand-off, unlike a similar one two years ago, could be protracted.

Nicholas Burns, under-secretary of state, testifying before the Senate's foreign affairs committee, said he hoped Iran would reach the right decision. He told the committee that the US approach to Iran in recent months, a combination of diplomacy and economic squeeze, was helping to unnerve the Iranian government. He said the two US carrier battle groups on exercises in the Gulf were "not to provoke Iran but to reassure our friends in the region".

Joe Biden, the Democratic chairman of the committee, said an otherwise minor incident could quickly spiral into military confrontation. "If there is anything worse than a poorly planned intentional war, it is an unplanned, unintentional war."

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Iran Warns of Possible Trial

World News

Iran Warns of Possible Trial

The British Foreign Office is demanding consular access to 15 British soldiers captured by Iran, but Tehran is refusing and has indicated that the Britons could be put on trial. It has also reacted to harsher UN sanctions by announcing that it is limiting its cooperation with the world's nuclear authority.

Charged relations between Iran and the West got tenser this weekend, with the unfolding crisis surrounding the capture of British sailors leading to a sharp exchange of words and Iran reacting to tougher United Nations Security Council sanctions by announcing it will suspend some of its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett demanded Sunday that Iran give British diplomats access to the 15 members of the Royal Navy who were detained last Friday by Iran. In a telephone call with her Iranian counterpart she made it very clear that the sailors had been in Iraqi waters, according to a British Foreign Office spokesman. The British government has yet to be given access to the group of 14 men and one woman.

There are signs that Tehran is considering putting the British military personnel on trial. General Ali Reza Afshar, Iran's top military official, said on Saturday that the seized Britons had been taken to Tehran for questioning and had confessed under interrogation to "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters."

Legal proceedings

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, speaking at a press conference in New York on Sunday, said the captured Britons were involved in "the illegal entrance into Iranian territorial waters and this issue is being considered legally." He said: "The Iranian authorities had intercepted these sailors and marines in Iranian waters and detained them in Iranian waters."

The comments were seen as a direct rebuff to the British prime minister's demands earlier in the day that the military personnel be released. Tony Blair had insisted that the sailors were in Iraqi waters at the time of their arrest. He said the detention of the personnel was "unjustified and wrong." And added "It is simply not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters and I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us." He said he wanted the issue "resolved in as easy and diplomatic a way as possible."

Britain's ambassador to Iraq, Iran Geoffrey Adams, has met with government officials but could not gain access to the British military personnel. He was told by an Iranian foreign ministry official that they were "well and sound" and that "legal proceedings" were under way.

Iranian student groups have called for the Britons to be held until the United States releases five Revolutionary Guard members captured in Iraq in January. Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, quoted an unidentified Iranian military source as saying that the aim of the capture had been to trade the Royal Marines for these Guards. "Orders were given to the marine units of the Guards to implement the first part of the plan which included besieging one of the British naval patrols in charge of combating smuggling and arrest the soldiers."

However, Iranian state television on Monday read a statement from Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehzi Mostafavi denying that Tehran had any aim of a prisoner exchange.

Ali Pahlavan, editor of Iran News, a Tehran-based newspaper, told the BBC that the move could be a strategy "to challenge British and American supremacy in this part of the world, which is troubling because this could lead to confrontation and this could be the trigger and could lead to escalation."

UN sanctions

Other radical groups are demanding that the sailors only be released when the sanctions against Iran are lifted. According to the London Times, there is now some speculation among diplomats that the British sailors were ambushed by a naval unit of the Revolutionary Guards in order to put pressure on Britain ahead of the Security Council vote on imposing harsher sanctions.

Nevertheless, the sanctions were imposed after a vote on Saturday night and the Iranians reacted by announcing that they would reduce their cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Iranian government will only reverse this decision when the UN sends the issue back to the IAEA, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said on Sunday.

According to Elham, the cabinet had decided to suspend "codes 1-3 of the minor arrangements of the safeguards," with the IAEA. These codes commit the Iranian government to informing the UN nuclear watchdog of any new steps or decisions it takes with its nuclear program.

The scaling back of cooperation with the IAEA is retaliation for the new sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council on Saturday, which Elham called "illegal and bullying."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the sanctions as the result of "hostility of some powers against Iran." Speaking on state television, Ahmadinejad said that the enemies of Tehran had made another mistake and that the Iranian uranium enrichment program would not be halted "even for one second."

Foreign Minister Mottaki said the resolution would have consequences. He insisted that Tehran had tried to negotiate with the permanent members of the Security Council and Germany and added that the sanctions were "illegal, unwarranted, and unjustified" and that they undermined the credibility of the Security Council.

The Security Council voted unanimously in favor of a second resolution on Saturday night in the hope of persuading Iran to forgo its nuclear program. The West suspects that the civilian energy program is in fact a program to develop nuclear weapons. The sanctions include a ban on Iranian arms exports and freezes the assets of 28 people and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile program, many of which are linked to the Revolutionary Guard.

The IAEA is due to deliver a report in 60 days on whether Iran has halted uranium enrichment. If it has failed to do so the mullah regime could face even tougher UN sanctions.