"Iran seized the British sailors in Iraqi waters, so an attempt to justify ownership of Iraqi territory does not make sense."
When Iraq invaded Iran, part of it had to deal with ownership of the waterwaty. The Iranians are accusing the British of being on their sovereign territory illegally. Right now that is the issue.
Were they? If they were in Iranian territory, then technically the British sailors can be considered spies and any negotiation on Irns part is from strength.
If it is Iraqi territory and Britain backs down then it only emboldens Iran to do more. So the British better do something to make Iran back away.
From what I understand, the incident took place in what is recognized internationally as Iraqi territory. Iran can claim whatever they please, but that does not mean their claim holds any weight outside of the Iranians minds.
The issue you speak of is nothing other than a diplomatic talking point aimed at stalling a response, but it wouldn't matter if they made that claim or not, the British won't respond with anything other than talk, or else their 15 sailors wouldn't be in Iranian custody.
It was an act of war, and the U.K. froze and backed down when they should have fought. Perhaps this will at least be a wakeup call for the rest of our forces in the region. If such an incident happens again, they should now be prepared to fight instead of wimping out as the British did on this occasion.
This was clearly planned and I believe the Captain of the ship the British stopped was in on ot. It was an ambush clear and simple and the second time they have done this. How long before they do it again? Time to make an example.
Why didn't the britsh commander go get his men back and then notify the politicians? If he got fired he would still be a national hero.
Lets see the brits were in uniform conducting a sanction mi9ssion and the five Iranians were in civilian clothes conducting military operations against coalition forces. Who are the spies?