Iran has summoned the British envoy to its foreign ministry over illegal entry into Iranian waters of the Royal Navy marines.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement aired on Friday on the state-run television, saying "British charge d'affaires Kate Smith was summoned to the foreign ministry to receive a firm protest from Iran against the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters."
"This makes a number of times that British sailors have illegally entered Iranian territorial waters at Arvand Rud," the statement read, adding, "They were arrested by border guards for investigation and questioning."
Arvand Rud is the Iranian name for the Shatt al-Arab waterway that separates Iran from neighboring Iraq.
Meanwhile, an Iranian foreign ministry official told AP the 15 seized British soldiers and marines have been "detained by Iran's border authorities for further investigation... of the blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters."
A U.S. Navy spokesman said Friday that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had radioed a British warship explaining that no harm had come to the 15 British sailors and marines and that they were seized because they were in Iranian waters.
Earlier, the British defense ministry had claimed 15 sailors were seized by Iran in "Iraqi territorial waters" while conducting "routine" anti-smuggling operations.
Iran's IRINN Persian-language news network said earlier on Friday that U.S. and British vessels had stopped and investigated a number of Iranian and Iraqi trade ships after illegally entering Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf close to Arvand Rud.
Iranian navy forces rushed to the scene after the trade vessels had sought help from Iranian forces, leading to the detention of British forces.
Unconfirmed sources told IRINN a British Royal Navy was also stopped and transferred to Iranian coastline.
Britain summoned the Iranian Ambassador to London, Rasul Movahedian Attar, to the foreign office shortly after the incident to convey the British government demand for the "immediate release" of the arrested soldiers and marines.
In 2004, eight troops were detained for three days and paraded on Iranian television. Iran said the soldiers aboard their boats were intercepted only after they entered Iranian waters.
The British forces apologized to Iran for illegally entering its waters, claiming they did not know they had left Iraqi waters.
Iran Seizes 15 British Naval Personnel in Gulf Waters (Update2)
By Alex Morales
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iran seized 15 British naval personnel who were conducting ``routine boarding operations'' in Iraqi waters, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.
``The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters,'' the ministry said in an e-mailed statement. ``We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level.''
Tensions have been rising between western nations and Iran over its nuclear program, and the Islamic republic has also been accused by the administrations of U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush of meddling in Iraq.
posted
Think about it, andy, she has probably got more sources and a bunch better chance of knowing the truth than you, and you are spouting off louly about it. Maybe you ought to be following your owe advice, particularly since all you have is a lot of hot headed reaction to what may be mis-information. We just don't yet know.
I'm not saying it isn't good dope, but we don't know enough to hope to even judge that yet.
Weren't you, once upon a time, ever bit as certain that Saddam had storehouses of nerve gas and personally funded al qaeda training bases in northern Iraq? Have you even considered the possibility that the English are acting in concert with dubya in a campaign of mis-information, lies, and provicative acts to percipitate an open conflict with Iran, just as they did in Iraq, pre-invasion?
Over reaction and demands to retaliate, if allowed to prevail, are certain to destroy any hope of actually learning the facts and of reaching any suitable conclusion diplonmatically.
I know that fool that is the president of Iraq is a bull headed one-track minded hot-headed jackass, prone to mis-characterizing whatever seem to support his lies, but so is ours!
IP: Logged |
She mostly fits into the category of those that, when I find they will be involved, I look or go away. She joins Fat Rush the Doper and Hypocrit, Sean Hannerty, dickie boy Chaney, etc. in that respect. (Should Governor Fat Pockets Swartznegger continue his recent interest in becoming a real person with a brain of his own, acting on behalf of the people, rather than as a compatriot of the rightwing, I may release him from membership.)
However, she is better informed and much more honest than any of the rightwing hate mongers that have designated her to be one of their victims of a campaign of lies and insults.
IP: Logged |
posted
I'm not saying it isn't good dope, but we don't know enough to hope to even judge that yet.
[/QB][/QUOTE] good dope, now that's one I haven't heard in a long time there bdgee. However, this isn't the first time the Iranians have taken Brits as captive. Nothing happened last time, nothing will happen this time. The British Govt' will just send Tehran a bill for he Bayliners they stole. Hell, we'll probably see Ahmadinejad water skiing behind one.
-------------------- If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all.
IP: Logged |
Iran says Britons confessed to territory violation
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's military said on Saturday British naval personnel seized in the Gulf confessed to entering Iranian waters illegally, but Britain maintained they were detained inside Iraqi territory and demanded their release.
Iranian forces captured 15 British sailors and marines on Friday at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which marks the southern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran. It sparked a diplomatic crisis at a time of increased tension over Tehran's nuclear standoff with the United States and other major powers.
The semi-official Fars news agency said they had been transferred to Tehran to explain their "aggressive action," but this could not be confirmed. Fars also said the group included some women.
"These people are under investigation and have confessed they have violated the waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the ISNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.
The official, Deputy Commander Alireza Afshar, told state radio the Britons were in good health. "The investigation is going on and they are healthy and there is no problem."
Iranian Arabic-language television station al-Alam later quoted him as saying the "confessions" would be made public soon without specifying how.
Afshar said they were detained on Friday by naval units of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideologically-driven wing of Iran's armed forces which has a separate command structure from the regular military.
Britain has not released the identities of the personnel.
"We still maintain they were in Iraqi waters when they were picked up," a British diplomat in Tehran said, adding he had no official information they had been moved to the capital.
He said the British ambassador was expected to meet Iranian Foreign Ministry officials on Sunday and would press for their release as well access to them. "We would like to see them as soon as possible," the diplomat said.
ENVOYS SUMMONED
Britain said two boatloads of Royal Navy sailors and marines had searched a merchant vessel on a U.N. approved mission in Iraqi waters when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.
An Iraqi fisherman who said he saw Iranian forces detain them, said on Saturday the ship British forces were searching was anchored in Iraqi waters.
The incident sent oil prices up more than one percent to a three-month high on Friday. It took place a day after Iran launched a week of naval war games along its coast, including the Gulf's northern reaches which give access to the oil output of Iraq, Iran and Kuwait.
It also came ahead of Saturday's expected U.N. Security Council vote to impose new arms and financial sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which the West suspects is designed to make atom bombs.
Tehran denies the charge, saying it is only aimed at generating electricity and save its oil and gas for export.
The package of sanctions targets Iran's arms exports, its state-owned Bank Sepah and the Revolutionary Guards.
In London, Britain held an hour-long meeting with Iran's ambassador to demand the immediate release of the naval personnel, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, in the second such meeting in London since Friday's incident.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards captured eight British servicemen in similar circumstances in 2004 and released them unharmed after three nights. Iran said they had crossed into its waters, which Britain disputed.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Tehran, Michael Holden in London, Inal Ersan in Dubai and Aref Mohammed in Basra)
posted
gordon? you are fond of Iranian propaganda?
even the Iraqi's say:An Iraqi fisherman who said he saw Iranian forces detain them, said on Saturday the ship British forces were searching was anchored in Iraqi waters.
this story will gain more legs if Iran doesn't smarten up....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
Britain denies that its forces were outside Iraqi territorial waters where the Royal Navy patrols under United Nations Security Council auspices to hunt for smugglers. The captured personnel in two inflatable boats had just conducted a search of a cargo ship when Iranian vessels surrounded them at gunpoint, according to British and American official accounts.
posted
the ship was waiting to unload cargo in IRAQ... end of story, it woulda been searched no matter what... He said the ship the British forces were searching was among several that had been anchored for a week or more, waiting to unload or take on cargo at an Iraqi port.
Fisherman says saw Britons detained in Iraqi waters 24 Mar 2007 16:32:29 GMT
BASRA, Iraq, March 24 (Reuters) - An Iraqi fisherman, who said he saw Iranian forces detain British sailors and marines in a waterway between Iraq and Iran, said on Saturday the ship British forces were searching was anchored in Iraqi waters.
Iran has condemned what it called the illegal entry on Friday of 15 British naval personnel into Iranian waters as a "suspicious act", the official IRNA news agency said.
Britain says they were detained in Iraqi waters on a routine search operation and has demanded their immediate return.
Brigadier Hakim Jassam of the Iraqi coastguard said it was not clear whether the ship was in Iraqi or Iranian waters.
The fisherman, a witness who alerted Reuters to the incident several hours before it was confirmed by the British government, said the line between Iranian and Iraqi waters was not marked by buoys but was well known.
"We've been working in this job for many years and because of our experience we can distinguish which is the Iraqi and which is Iranian side," he said, adding that Iraqi boats never venture across because of tight security by Iranian coastguards.
He said the ship the British forces were searching was among several that had been anchored for a week or more, waiting to unload or take on cargo at an Iraqi port.
"The ship was in Iraqi waters," said the fisherman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
The Iraqi coastguard's Jassam said the incident happened at the entrance of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the open waters of the Gulf narrow into a channel that marks the southern border between the two countries.
"We don't know whether it happened in Iraqi or Iranian waters, we don't have exact information," Jassam told Reuters.
The detention has triggered a diplomatic crisis at a time of heightened tension over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
posted
The Shatt al-Arab (Arabic: شط العرب, "Coast of the Arabs") or the Arvandrud (called اروندرود: arvandrud in Persian) , is a river in Southwest Asia of some 200 km in length, formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris in the town of al-Qurnah in the Basra Governorate of southern Iraq. The southern end of the river constitutes the border between Iraq and Iran (Persia) down to the mouth of the river as it discharges into the Persian Gulf. It varies in width from about 760 feet (232 m) at Basra to 0.5 mile (0.8 km) at its mouth. The Karun river, a tributary which joins Shatt al-Arab from the Iranian side, deposits copious amounts of silt into the river; this necessitates continuous dredging to keep it navigable. It is thought that Shatt al-Arab formed relatively recently, with the Tigris and Euphrates originally emptying into the Persian Gulf via a channel further to the west.
suppose the Brits did enter Iranian water by a few feet?
so what? the ship was going thru "customs" it was not halted and boarded..it was waiting to take on or unlaod cargo in Iraq...
Amadinjad is the one who is looking for trouble here, not US and the Brits...
just cuz you don't like Bush ? don't allow that to cloud your judgment... Iran is and has been a big problem since the hostage crisis in '79, no matter what side of the political fence you are on, and will have to be dealt with, one way or another, by the next president too...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
more history: In the latest invasion of Iraq 2003, Shatt al-Arab was a key military target for Allied Forces. Since it is the only outlet to the Persian Gulf, its capture was important in delivering humanitarian aid to the rest of the country, and also to stop the flow of illegal smuggling operations. The British Royal Marines staged an amphibious assault to capture the key oil installations and shipping docks located on the al-Faw peninsula at the onset of the conflict. Following the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, the British Forces conducted military patrols along Shatt al-Arab waterway, and have begun to train Iraqi forces to take over the responsibility of guarding their waterways.
Also, during the recent conflict in Iraq, British servicemen were held for two days in June 2004 after apparently straying into the Iranian side of Shatt al-Arab. After being initially threatened with prosecution, they were released after high level conversations between British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kamal Kharrazi. The initial hardline approach was put down to power struggles within the Iranian government. The British marines' weapons and boats were confiscated.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe you ought to be following your owe advice, particularly since all you have is a lot of hot headed reaction to what may be mis-information. We just don't yet know.
Where is my hot headed reaction? You got me scratching my head.
IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Gordon Bennett: I'm not fond of any propaganda: theirs or ours.
quote:Originally posted by glassman: gordon? you are fond of Iranian propaganda?
well, it's incumbent upon all of US to question the sources, but i don't believe the Iraninans have nearly the freedom of press that we do. Yes, ours is imperfect, but it is still damn good. (in spite of all the right wingers whining and sniveling about all the "liberal repoerters" )
This thing could end real bad for Iran, and those 15 British sailors that are there doing their job trying to protect all of us.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Gordon Bennett: Have you ever wondered why Iran would want to be bombed by the USA?
Me too.
i don't wonder at all..
they are taking advantage of the political climate here. they don't believe Bush can act now that the anti-war movement has gained so much ground. they have taken hostages before with impunity...
Amadinejad is nuts, but he realises that he has the opportunity to actually take over Iraq or a large portion of it because of the religio-politics there..
Bush didn't have a clue that most Iraqi's are Shiite like Iran...
Amadinejad needs to do just enough to make Bush look bad, but not get his butt blown off..that way he wins the hearts and minds of Iraqi Shia...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
We should be greatful that we are fighting with a stupid backward enemy. Just think if Bush had to fight a good intelligent enemy what a mess we would have been in.
posted
bond, you know i've been a pretty harsh Bush critic since early '04...
Iran is our enemy, and one of major concern... i posted over and over again for the last two years that Bush screwed up invading Iraq. Afghanistan had to be done, and Iran is making it impossible not to... IMO? we don't need to put troops on the ground there, just take out all their electricity.. look how long it's taken Iraq to get theirs back up...
Iran is backward too, just not as backwards as Iraq...they still have to IMPORT gasoline cuz they don't even refine enough of their OWN OIL to meet their own needs.. yet? they want nuclear power? LOL...
wake up..they are not peaceniks..
it takes electric power to refine Uranium....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
Iran to Limit Cooperation With Nuclear Inspectors
By THOM SHANKER and WILLIAM J. BROAD Published: March 26, 2007
The government of Iran yesterday denounced as illegal a sanctions package approved unanimously over the weekend by the United Nations Security Council, and in retaliation announced that it would limit cooperation with the United Nations’ nuclear oversight agency.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a defiant statement that “Iran’s enrichment of uranium is a legal issue,” maintaining that his nation’s nuclear program was intended solely for energy production.
In contrast, he said, the Security Council’s vote on Saturday imposing new sanctions on Iranian arms exports, the state-owned Bank Sepah and the Revolutionary Guard Corps “is not legal.”
posted
Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2007, 21:49 GMT 22:49 UK Seizure unjustified, Iran warned
Iran's detention of 15 Royal Navy personnel is "unjustified and wrong", Prime Minister Tony Blair has said.
UK officials are waiting to be granted access to the HMS Cornwall staff, who were seized on Friday, and have not been told where the group are held.
Hardline students close to Iran's president have called for the sailors to be put on trial.
Iran says they were trespassing in its waters, but speaking at an EU summit, Mr Blair denied this was the case.
"It simply is not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters and I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," Mr Blair said. 'Wider crisis'
It is also feared that the fate of the captured personnel has become part of a wider crisis centring on Iran's nuclear programme, our correspondent said.
On Saturday, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of further sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme.
And on Sunday evening Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, responded that it would restrict co-operation with international inspectors.
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
