Iran Cites ‘Aggression’ in Case of Captured British Personnel - New York Times

Iran Cites ‘Aggression’ in Case of Captured British Personnel - New York Times

March 25, 2007
Iran Cites ‘Aggression’ in Case of Captured British Personnel
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON, March 24 — One day after its forces seized 15 British naval personnel near disputed waters, Iran accused Britain on Saturday of “blatant aggression,” while Britain demanded “the immediate and safe return” of its personnel.

In Tehran, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said the Britons — eight sailors and seven marines — had violated “the sovereign boundaries of other states,” the state-run IRNA news agency said, and that Iran was carrying out “further investigation of the blatant aggression.”

Iranian news agencies said the 15 Britons had been transferred to Tehran, where a senior Iranian military official was quoted as saying they had “confessed to illegal entry into Iran’s waters.”

“The said personnel are being interrogated and have confessed to aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran waters,” Gen. Ali Reza Afshar was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

The Press Association news agency in Britain said one of the captured personnel was a woman, but gave no further details.

The Royal Navy patrols Iraqi territorial waters under United Nations Security Council auspices, hunting for smugglers. The British personnel had just conducted a search of a cargo ship in Shatt al Arab, the disputed waterway between Iran and Iraq, when Iranian vessels surrounded their two inflatable boats at gunpoint, according to British and American official accounts. Iran says the British forces were in Iranian waters; Britain denies that its forces were outside Iraqi waters.

Britain and Iran have called in each another’s ambassadors in London and Tehran to protest and demand explanations. Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary, said, “We have asked for a full explanation on what has happened, and we are leaving them in no doubt that that we want the immediate and safe return of our personnel and their equipment.”

The diplomatic overtones widened Saturday when the 27-nation European Union demanded the release of the British personnel, hours before a scheduled United Nations Security Council vote in New York on Iran’s contentious nuclear program.

In Berlin, the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said, “We demand the release of the British soldiers.”

The European Union is meeting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding, and Mr. Steinmeier said it would issue a statement supporting Britain, a member, in its dispute with Iran over the personnel.

The incident has revived memories here of events in June 2004, when Iran captured and held eight British marines and sailors for three days in the Shatt al Arab region.