Posted on 06/22/2004 1:21:39 AM PDT by kattracks
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Eight British Navy sailors serving in Iraq will be prosecuted on charges of entering Iran's territorial waters, Iran's state-run television said Tuesday.The eight were detained in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway on Monday as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway runs along the border between Iran and Iraq.
"They will be prosecuted for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters," the Arabic language Al-Alam television said Tuesday.
"The vessels were 1,000 meters inside Iranian territorial waters. The crew have also confessed to having entered Iranian waters," the broadcast said.
The British Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has spoken to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi about the incident.
The waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf that divides Iran and Iraq, has long been a source of tension between the neighbors. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.
Monday's incident follows a strain in Iranian-British relations after London helped draft a resolution rebuking Iran for past nuclear cover-ups at last week's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors.
Iran says its program is aimed only at producing energy, while the United States accuses Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran accused Britain, which it had seen as a partner in the investigation into its nuclear activities, of caving in to U.S. pressure on the resolution.
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Monday that Iranian naval guards, "acting upon their legal duty," seized the boats and detained the occupants when they entered Iran's territorial waters, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
Al-Alam television reported that the crew members were carrying maps and weapons.
The British Defense Ministry said the personnel were from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq. They were delivering a boat from Umm Qasr to Basra, Iraq.
"The boats are unarmed but the crews were carrying their personal weapons," a statement said.
Britain held hostage, 2004.
I'm surprised that Britain hasn't said return them or we bomb your potential Nuclear plant.
All in good time.
Regards, Ivan
Well my best wishes and prayers for the Gentlemen of the British Navy held by Iran.
Seven Eleven.
Since that plant will be bombed in the future, it wouldn't be cricket to make such a deal.
Iran to prosecute detained British soldiersTEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is to prosecute eight British soldiers detained for allegedly straying into Iranian territorial waters close to the Iraqi border, Al-Alam television reported quoting Iranian military sources.
"They are going to be prosecuted for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters. They were 1,000 metres (yards) inside Iranian territorial waters," said the Arabic-language satellite channel, a branch of Iran's state television.
The station said the soldiers, who were detained Monday and whose three boats were also seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, had already "confessed" to having entered Iranian waters.
"Their last known indication was to be in the Shatt al-Arab area which is not unusual," said the spokesman.
Earlier a Royal Navy spokesman at the defence ministry in London called it a "low-level incident", saying the three small boats appeared to have "strayed into Iranian territory."
"These boats are used for training Iraqi river patrol service ... what we would call river police," said the spokesman, who was unable to specify if any Iraqis were on board.
"The waterway runs over a mile (1.6 kilometres) wide. The border runs pretty much down the middle of it ... Maybe, it was disputed whose side" of the border the vessels were on, he said.
British armed forces control a large area of southern Iraq (news - web sites) around the city of Basra, and along with Iraqi security forces patrol parts of the Shatt al-Arab, mostly to combat smugglers and militants seeking to infiltrate Iraq and join the insurgency against the US-led coalition.
Contacts with Iranian troops along that border area have generally been described by British sources as cordial, and Monday's incident is the most serious in the sensitive area since last year's US-led invasion of Iraq.
The Shatt al-Arab border demarcation has been a constant source of dispute -- and of conflict during the 1980-1988 war between Iran and Iraq -- under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), until a deal was struck for the frontier to run at the mid-way point.
Ties between Britain and Iran have been strained in recent months, with the embassy here being targeted by a string of angry demonstrations sparked by an Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal as well as the entry of coalition troops into Iraq's holy Shiite cities.
During some of the protests, the embassy was pelted with stones and hit by home-made bombs.
Britain was also the co-sponsor of a resolution passed by the International Atomic Energy Agency last Friday that heavily criticised Iran for failing to fully cooperate with an investigation into its suspect nuclear programme.
That deal would be a threat. That is a threat.
Maybe suggest the Capital of Iran might be bombed if they put those men on trial.
Iran's starting to get a little frisky. Could this be an attempt to build morale for their minions in Iraq and elsewhere?
Regards, Ivan
Hope you're right. Iran keeps pushing the boundaries and needs to be pushed back.
Too noisy and would not hurt enough.
I predict a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
It's quite, it's hard to claim that women and children at a floating wedding party were killed and it will cost Iran millions of dollars in lost revenue.
They'll try to make up for that revenue loss by raising the price here in America of the Big Gulp by 20 cents.
On The WASHINGTONTIMES.COM web site:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_BRITISH_BOATS?SITE=DCTMS&SECTION=HOME
"Iran to Prosecute British Navy Sailors"
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)
IMHO, Once you factor in the Islamofascist factor, Blair hasn't got a lot of time available to deal with this. The attacks will come either way, but it's how the public at home perceives them. No action to rescue the sailors before the attack, and Blair will appear weak. Sailors rescued and Iran humbled, public would perceive the attack as the work of cowardly terrorists looking for any reason to justify murder.
Just imagine if Carter had to deal with the level of terrorism we have now. Clinton gave these people years to grow out of control. Probably aided them at several points just to avoid further attacks after the first WTC bombing. Thank God we have GW in place now that those roots planted so long ago have sprouted.
I like this, If one American or Brit. injured for whatever reasons. Mecca is reduced to little more than dust and a burnt out cinder.
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