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Iran âto charge British sailorsâ
Iran is to prosecute eight UK sailors detained for allegedly straying into its territory, state-run TV quotes military sources as saying. Three British naval craft and their crews were seized on Monday in the Shatt al-Arab waterway close to the Iraqi border. Al-Alam television said the men had admitted breaching Iranâs borders. UK diplomats have been holding talks with Iran about what a spokesman described as an "unfortunate mistake". British diplomatic staff in Tehran have requested immediate consular access to the men but there has been no response so far, nor have they been told where the men are or who is holding them. Tuesday morning saw Foreign Secretary Jack Straw speak to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi. BBC Tehran correspondent Jim Muir says the two men have a good relationship, but it is unclear whether their conversations have yielded anything. Iranian interrogators have been questioning the eight men, who the British defence ministry says were part of a Royal Navy training team delivering a boat from the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr to Basra. A spokesman in London said Britain had been using boats to train the Iraqi river patrol service, and the craft may have strayed across the maritime border by mistake. "The waterway runs over a mile wide. The border runs pretty much down the middle of it," he said. The boats were unarmed but the crews were carrying their personal weapons, he added. TV pictures Iranian television has been showing pictures of the men, dressed in military fatigues, sitting on sofas and armchairs in what was obviously an office, although there was no indication of its location. They looked serious but were clearly unharmed. Our correspondent says that so far, the situation has not had a major impact on the complex Iranian political scene, despite the fact that relations between Iran and the UK are currently as sensitive as ever. State-run television has been giving it minimal coverage and only a few of the Iranian newspapers give the story front-page treatment. BBC diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall describes UK-Iranian relations as a difficult balancing act, with British forces in southern Iraq apparently under orders to keep border tensions with Iran to a minimum. The affair comes at a time when relations between the two countries are tenser than usual. Hardliners have staged a series of angry demonstrations outside the British embassy in Tehran in recent weeks to protest at the occupation of Iraq. Britain has also been strongly criticised too for its role in helping draft a tough resolution on Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week. Pre 30th June chest beating from a regime on the wane. Posted by: Howard UK 2004-06-22 |
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