Posted on 06/22/2004 5:48:13 AM PDT by nuconvert
Edited on 06/22/2004 5:52:13 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Iran to Prosecute British Sailors Tuesday, June 22, 2004 TEHRAN, Iran — Tehran will prosecute eight British sailors and Marines for allegedly entering Iranian waters aboard three military patrol boats, according to Iranian state-run television. British officials are demanding access to the men, who were detained in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway (search) on Monday as they were delivering a patrol boat to the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway, the outlet of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers into the Persian Gulf, runs along the southern border between Iran and Iraq.
The 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 U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency's (search) board of governors.
Iranian television showed the British servicemen sitting silently on chairs and a sofa. Three of them were in British military uniform; five others wore military trousers and civilian T-shirts.
"They will be prosecuted for illegally entering Iranian territorial waters," said Al-Alam television, an Arabic-language channel on the state-run Iranian radio and television network. "The vessels were 1,000 meters inside Iranian territorial waters.
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PonG
What can the Mullahs be thinking? Unreal. This might get very dangerous.
They are thinking that they need to flex their muscles (not their brains) for all the world to see.
"They are thinking that they need to flex their muscles..."
Right.
It's 'we just want everyone to know that you can't push us around.'
Calm down.
I think the Mullahs have lost their friggin' minds. If they think we're going to stand by and let this happen because we're tied down in Iraq and it's an election year their nuts.
I suspect the SAS and SBS are on their way already, to liberate the British "prisoners", their boats, and to dispatch their captors "with extreme predjudice".
Breath slowly....calm down.
I think they're probably being treated very well.
Rather than an insertion team, I would like to see Britain or the US just say: "The Iranian government has 24 hours to get those hostages to the British Embassy. Failure to do so will result in a large bombing run."
Well...it took a while for the Brits to straighten out the Falklands deal.
We'll wait and see what develops. I think the regime is just trying to get in the papers.
They're mad about the EU's treatment of them over the nuke situation. (actually, they got off very lightly). This is a little payback. They know they can't do much more.
PonG
But it is fine with them to use Iran as a staging center for terorism?
Yeah right. I'm sure it was all the wonderful treatment they are getting that convinced them to "confess" they are really spys.
If it goes as far as "prosecuting", it will be the fastest prosecution on record, and their punishment will be being sent back to England.
"But it is fine with them to use Iran as a staging center for terorism?"
Well, apparently it has been in the past, yes. But it isn't fine with President Bush.
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