Iran holding 15 British Sailors

[KG_Cloghaun]

U.K. envoy seeks to see sailors in Iran

British diplomats 'working very hard' to secure release of 15 troops
Reuters
Updated: 2:38 a.m. PT March 25, 2007


TEHRAN, Iran - The British envoy to Tehran on Sunday requested access to 15 detained British naval personnel who Iran says entered Iranian waters illegally despite Britain’s insistence they were in Iraqi territory, a diplomat said.

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.

It has sparked a diplomatic crisis when tensions are already high with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran on Saturday.

Britain’s Ambassador Geoffrey Adams met Iranian Foreign Ministry official Ebrahim Rahimpour to discuss the issue at London’s request, a British diplomat in Tehran told Reuters.

“We have repeated the line asking for their release. We asked for details of where they are and asked for consular access,” the diplomat said.
“The (Iranian Foreign Ministry) promised to look into these requests and dialogue is continuing,” the diplomat added.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported on Saturday that the 15 sailors and marines had been transferred to Tehran. But this has not been independently confirmed.

'Intense diplomacy'
Jack Straw, leader of Britain’s House of Commons and former Foreign Minister, told BBC television that one of those detained was a woman and said British Foreign Ministry officials were “working very hard indeed to try to secure their safe return.”

“It requires some very careful and intense diplomacy,” Straw said.
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 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, Iran and Kuwait.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17782123/

[KG_Koz]

I've seen only spotty and vague information about this. One of the news shows implied that the British sailors were dispatched from a larger British warship and that the larger warship observed the Iranian ships intercept the smaller boat that the British sailers were on.

If the British warship saw the Iranians on an intercept route and the British felt they were in Iraqi or neutral waters, you would think that they would have taken some action to prevent the capture of the British sailors.

Evidently this occurred in an area that has been disputed by Iran/Iraq for decades.

[KG_Cloghaun]

Blair warns Iran of "different phase"


By Paul Hughes1 hour, 15 minutes ago



Britain's British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Tehran on Tuesday of a "different phase" if it did not free 15 British military personnel captured in the Gulf four days ago.

The sailors' capture and new U.N. sanctions imposed on Tehran on Saturday over its disputed nuclear program have stoked tensions between the West and Iran and pushed oil prices to a 2007 high.

Russia and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday urged Iran to comply with U.N. demands that it halt sensitive nuclear work but Tehran says the U.N. resolution is illegal.

Iran, which denies any intention of making atomic weapons, has said it may charge the two boatloads of British sailors and marines with illegally entering its waters in the northern Gulf. Britain insists they were operating in Iraqi waters.

"What we are trying to do ... 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," Blair said.

"They have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase," he told Britain's GMTV television.

Blair's spokesman said the next step London could take would be to publish proof, in the form of global satellite positioning (GPS) records, that the sailors had not entered Iranian waters.

"We so far haven't made explicit why we know that because we don't want to escalate this," he said.

A government source in London told Reuters British officials were showing Iran data on the sailors' exact position when seized.

Britain has been assured that the sailors are well but has not been given access to them or told where they are being held.

LEAVE DOOR OPEN
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, visiting Iran's neighbor Turkey where her counterpart Abdullah Gul voiced support for the sailors' release, said Britain would "continue to leave the door open for a constructive outcome."

Iraq's government and an Iraqi fisherman who witnessed the capture say it took place in Iraqi waters.

Iran captured eight British servicemen in similar circumstances in 2004 and released them after three nights.

Analysts have said the current crisis appeared more complex and would take longer to resolve than three years ago.

"The incident in 2004 was less tense, there were fewer gathering clouds, so they may well be held for longer," said Alex Bigham, of the Foreign Policy Center. "There are probably also internal political battles in Iran over what to do next."

Some hardline groups in Iran suggest the case could be a bargaining chip in its nuclear and other rows with the West, exposing what analysts said were divisions with more moderate voices who want to build bridges abroad, not exacerbate tension.


In Iran, a crowd of hardline students chanting "Death to Britain" gathered on Tuesday on the shoreline close to where the Britons were captured and demanded firm action against the sailors, Iran's semi official Mehr news agency reported.

But the official IRNA news agency suggested in a commentary the issue could still be resolved if London apologized.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program.

"The door is open ... I hope that a positive reaction (from Iran) will follow," he said.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan said his country would not be involved in any military strike on Iran, but urged the Islamic Republic to avoid stoking tensions.
(Additional reporting by David Clarke, Katherine Baldwin and Sophie Walker in London, Fredrik Dahl in Tehran, Zerin Elci in Ankara, Diala Saadeh in Dubai, Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow)

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070327/...ain_sailors_dc

[KG_Jag]

This type of approach worked for North Korea. So why not.....?

[KG_Cloghaun]

U.S. launches show of force in Gulf

Aircraft carriers, warplanes feature in maneuvers off the coast of Iran

The Associated Press

Updated: 7:17 a.m. ET March 27, 2007


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.

The U.S. exercises come just four days after Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines who Iran said had strayed into Iranian waters near the Gulf. Britain and the U.S. Navy have insisted the British sailors were operating in Iraqi waters.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl said the U.S. maneuvers were not organized in response to the capture of the British sailors — nor were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic, whose navy operates in the same waters.

He declined to specify when the Navy planned the exercises.

Aandahl said the U.S. warships would stay out of Iranian territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off the Iranian coast.


Simultaneous French operations
A French naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, was operating simultaneously just outside the Gulf. But the French ships were supporting the NATO forces in Afghanistan and not taking part in the U.S. maneuvers, officials said.

Overall, the exercises involve more than 10,000 U.S. personnel on warships and aircraft making simulated attacks on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and finding mines.

“What it should be seen as by Iran or anyone else is that it’s for regional stability and security,” Aandahl said. “These ships are just another demonstration of that. If there’s a destabilizing effect, it’s Iran’s behavior.”

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17810017/

[KG_Panzerschreck]

Iran has done this before. They took a couple of Brit Marines a few years ago, held them for i belive a week or so and let them go. Its just them being assholes. Its the only way they can mess with the Brits and us so they do it every once in a while. They wouldnt dream of hurting them. Or taking USA soldiers for that matter, IMHO.

[KG_Soldier]

I heard the Iranians are asking the Brits to pull 300 from theaters or they're going to behead the sailors and feed them to their mutant immortals.

[KG_Kharkov]

They have a major conflict currently in their government between moderates and extremists, and I'm sure there is internal debate in Iran over what to do with these Brits. The Iranians are still led by the same group of whackos that sanctioned taking the U.S. embassy personnel as hostages, so I wouldn't put it past them to do something "stupid". In all likelihood, they'll do what they did in 2004, beat on these poor Brits for a few days, try to wrangle confessions, maybe parade them around and then release them.

I feel much better knowing the Frog carrier Charles De Gaulle is in the area watching our backs. If it is lives up to its namesake, we'll launch an attack that frees the Brits and then it will claim to have heavily supported us in the effort!

[KG_Swampfox]

Originally Posted by KG_Kharkov

I feel much better knowing the Frog carrier Charles De Gaulle is in the area watching our backs. If it is lives up to its namesake, we'll launch an attack that frees the Brits and then it will claim to have heavily supported us in the effort!

How?? By surrendering to them, and by that heaping a economic burden on Iran trying to feed all of them.....

[KG_Kharkov]

Right now, I'm sure the Frogs are working on a secret plan to have Rambeau, the Frog special agent entrepeneur, sell a nuclear reactor to Iran at "discounted" rates in exchange for the Brit's freedom.