Iran,  Iran Nuclear Watch,  Iraq,  Iraq War,  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,  United Kingdom

Iran Watch: Iran May Charge British Sailors

Update:

Iran says it is now interrogating the British sailors.

iranmarch252007kweb

AP: Iran may charge British sailors

Iran warned that 15 British sailors and marines could face charges for allegedly entering Iranian waters and rejected British requests to meet with the servicemen detained off the coast of Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki threatened unspecified consequences for the Royal Navy crew in comments to reporters in New York on Sunday, describing the charge against them as “illegal entrance into Iranian waters.”

“In terms of legal issues, it’s under investigation,” Mottaki said.

Iraq’s foreign minister demanded that Iran release the servicemen who were captured Friday, saying they had been detained in Iraqi waters and were operating with government consent, a statement from his office said Monday.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari discussed the issue with Mottaki on Sunday and “called for their release and for addressing their issue legally and wisely,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television on Monday quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Mehzi Mostafavi as saying that Iran was not aiming to swap the British servicemen for five Iranians who were arrested in northern Iraq.

The Brits cannot be too happy with this turn of events. Prime Minister Tony Blair has already vehemently protested, warning Iran that its seizure was “unjustified and wrong”, insisting the sailors and marines were taken from Iraqi waters.

iranmarch252007jweb

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki speaks during a news conference in New York March 25, 2007. Iran is considering charging 15 British sailors with illegally entering its waters and may grant Britain access to its navy personnel when Tehran’s investigation is complete, Mottaki said on Sunday.

In comments read out by a newscaster, Mostafavi did not say what Iran plans to do with the British servicemen, but he said they were being interrogated.

“Iran has enough evidence to prove that the British Forces personnel were detained in Iranian waters,” he said. He added that the British government was accountable for their actions.

The capture and detention of the British service personnel increased tensions between Iran and the West that already were high over Tehran’s nuclear program and allegations that Iran is interfering with the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

And this is not the first time that British sailors have been captured by the Iranians. In 2004 six British marines and two sailors were captured, then paraded blindfolded on Iranian television. They admitted they had entered Iranian waters illegally but were released unharmed after three days.

The area will remain a “FLASH POINT” for potential escalation until the Brits are released.

Will the British people now swing to majority support of Tony Blair’s policies in the region?

Stay tuned……

iranmarch252007aweb

British soliders patrol the waterways close to an oil terminal near the Iraqi city of Basra in 2005. British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday called Iran’s seizure of 15 British naval personnel “unjustified and wrong” as international pressure grew on Iran over the new diplomatic crisis.

Previous:

Iran Watch: Iran to Try Brits for Spying?

Iran Watch: British Troops Transported To Tehran

Iran Watch: Are Seized British Troops Hostages?

Iran Nuclear Watch: Ahmadinejad Cancels United Nations Appearance

Iran Watch: Iran Seizes British Sailors in Iraq Waters


Technorati Tags: , , , ,

6 Comments

  • aaron

    it’s funny…since the al-q/taliban and 9/11 this is the first outright act of war since we started stirring up the shit in that bowl….so where’s blair now? too bad he’s looking for the nuts thatcher had. i think he gave his to bush, seriously, he has been a total tool this whole time with no personal opinion…now it is his country with a slam dunk act of war like afghanistan initiated and he is threatening, some kind of response? pussy…or maybe he’s paying for the iraq train wreck that has side tracked what afghanistan could have accomplished alone….

    the world is run by dumbasses people….talk to any of your representatives for more than 30 minutes….very enlightening….we weren’t afraid of iraq but iran was the real deal the whole time and we are scared shitless in our command structure….9/11 didnt change the world, people pulled thier heads out of thier asses for 10 minutes then bush said “go back to your lives we got this”.

    so uh, when is the revolution already? when marshall law is enacted “for the children” it might be too late to give a shit

  • Flap

    Aaron,

    President bush has ordered two carrier groups to the Gulf and then are now conducting war games.

    If Iran persists in its nuclear program and tries the Brit sailors there will be a military strike on Iran.

    Bet on it!

  • aaron

    problem is we cant fight 3 fronts without a draft period. do you think that will happen? too many politicos and no statesmen.

    bush has less and less “capital” to spend by the fraction of a second…will this congress help him out? no, he spent his “capital” on magic beans and an air freshener (which by the way in non returnable and niether work)instead of doing the obvious right thing.

    we may support someone else going there with air power, which we have more than enough of….but iran will require more than air strikes, ultimate goal will have to be the production/nukes and the brits WILL NOT EVER occupy another country much less iran as the main force while blair is in office regardless of justification (…i watch too much cspan. you should catch when parlament is going off it’s great, i like thier debate style alot better than congress)…i just dont see it. i’m almost positive in this case we are all show and no go. hope im wrong….i never supported going to iraq, regardless of justification, AT LEAST until AFTER afghanistan…just to show where i am on this….turns out if we werent in iraq this situation would be much more simple….not monday quarterbacking either, turns out, i dont think bush cared about my letter either hehe

    —Aaron

  • Flap

    America and Britain could cripple Iran by seizing their oil operations and blockading their gasoline imports.

    You won’t need alot of troops to do that.

  • aaron

    how does that help? they can’t beat us in a straight fight to start with so gas wont be an issue because they wont use tanks and planes. any discomfort to thier people will be used to rally around the koran against us.

    they have nukes…they have no quams about being the only country i can think of with nukes that would actually use them as HOME DEFENCE. they showed during the iran iraq war that they dont even need thier own guns, just prayer towels, when they step on the battlefield if everyone craves death as a reward to begin with. that’s why saddam used gas, his guys were getting overun after running out of bullets by a bunch of unarmed goons.

    any plan to react to iran at this point must include the nuke issue. too many fronts to do it right man…well that and not enough balls to use ALL our tools and toys also.

  • aaron

    cripple is relative…blockade wont stop them from HOME DEFENCE nuke use (only country i can actually see being that raw). gas wont be an issue they wont use tanks anyway…(source iran iraq war) we dont control the iran iraq border where we are fighting them by proxy, after that im sure it will be more blatent (lets face it in iraq we are treading water now). also somehow somewhere ive heard that line where it should be easy and not take many troops…hmm 6 months equals 5+ years so far on my sliding conversion chart…