Iran Watch: Iran to Try Brits for Spying?

Iran â€˜to try Britons for espionageâ€™

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iranâ€™s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as â€œinsurgentsâ€, the site concluded: â€œIf it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.â€

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their â€œaggressive actionâ€ in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

The penalty in Iran for espionage is death.

But, what is the REAL FLAP here?

1. Is this an annoying repeat of the 2004 capture of British troops? The Brits were accused of spying, blindfolded, paraded around on Iranian television, did not appear in court and were freed after three days.

2. Retribution for United Nations Security Council nuclear sanctions approved today?

Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, left, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right, review an honor guard, at a base of the Basij paramilitary, in Tehran, Iran, in this Sunday, Oct. 30, 2005, photo.

3. A Cold-War type trade of soldiers? Fifteen Brits for the five Iranian Quds Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq by American forces.

4. Official Iranian terrorist policy? The tactic had been approved by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iranâ€™s supreme leader, who warned last week that Tehran would take â€œillegal actionsâ€ if necessary to maintain its right to develop a nuclear program.

5. Actions of Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, General Yahya Rahim Safavi, who is pissed that some of his people have recently defected to the West and that United Nations sanctions are affecting his personal finances?

Admiral Sir Alan West, the former head of the Royal Navy, dismissed suggestions that the British boats might have been in Iranian waters. West, who was first sea lord when the previous arrests took place in June 2004, said satellite tracking systems had shown then that the Iranians were lying and the same was certain to be true now.

Stay tuned…..