British hostages to be freed. Ahmadinejad kicks the ball down the road.

Iran 'to release British sailors'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says 15 British naval personnel captured in the Gulf will be freed.
He repeated allegations that the British sailors and marines "invaded" Iranian waters, but said they would be freed as a "gift" to Britain.

He made the announcement at a news conference, in which he also awarded medals to the commanders who captured the British personnel in the Gulf.

Britain says the 15 were in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate.

Mr Ahmadinejad also criticised the US-led invasion of Iraq and Israel's war in Lebanon.

He used a news conference marking the Persian New Year to condemn the countries he said were behind "misery" and "destruction" in the world.

He said there did not appear to be anyone "to stand up and defend the rights of those oppressed".

He opened the news conference with references to the Islamic holy book, the Koran, then made a wide-ranging speech about the modern history of the Middle East, while attacking the West.

The invasion of Iraq was based on the false premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, he said, but even now "the occupation forces continue to stay there and people are still being killed".

Sky News has an interesting interactive chart of the power bases in Iran.

Of course "Iran planned to snatch sailors."

25 March 2007Daily Mail
IRAN 'PLANNED TO SNATCH SAILORS'
Hostage crisis escalates as Tehran accused of plotting kidnap at sea
By Norman Silvester

IRAN was last night accused of planning to snatch 15 Royal Marines and sailors to use as "bargaining chips".

Intelligence sources claimed the plot to take Royal Navy personnel hostage on Friday had been agreed five days earlier.

Eight sailors and seven marines - including one woman - were captured on Friday while carrying out anti-smuggling patrols in the Arabian Gulf.

But military sources in Iran's capital Tehran - quoted in reports in Israel - said the kidnap had been agreed on March 18.

The captured sailors and marines were to be used to try and force release of five Iranians taken prisoner by US troops in Iraq.

The seizure also comes before the United Nations' Security Council votes on tougher sanctions linked to Iran's nuclear programme.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already cancelled a planned trip to New York to address the UN before the vote.

Yesterday, the Foreign Office held crisis talks with Iran's ambassador Rasoul Movahedian in London and demanded the unconditional release of the prisoners.

The 15 crew members were said to have been flown to the country's capital Tehran for questioning.

Iranian armed forces spokesman General Ali Reza Afshar said the sailors and marines have admitted to being in Iranian waters illegally.

He said: "Personnel are being interrogated and have confessed to aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters."

The 15 sailors and marines serve on Plymouth-based HMS Cornwall, which patrols Iraqi territorial waters in the northern Gulf to combat smuggling and protect oil rigs.

They were surrounded by six Iranian gunboats on Friday as they reboarded their two small dinghies after searching an Arab craft.

The Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said: "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that they were in Iraqi territorial waters.

"Equally, the Iranians may well claim that they were in Iranian waters. The extent and definition of territorial waters in this part of the world is very complicated.

"Hopefully, we will see the early release of my people."

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell insisted: "The UK will not be blackmailed. Iran has a choice - to act responsibly, or face greater isolation."

Iranians want trouble again . Give it to them.

Iran has said that British naval personnel seized at gunpoint in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway had confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters.

"The investigation, and confessions that we have, shows they have been arrested in Iranian waters," an armed forces commander told state radio.

The 15 captured British naval personnel were today reported to have been moved to Tehran as Iran raised the stakes in the escalating diplomatic crisis.

Many pundits are wondering who is behind it. Why? Why now? What do they want? Westhawk makes the observation that the incident is manufactured and...

Naturally, it is a risky business to manufacture international incidents to cover up bad news elsewhere. Perhaps a different junior officer with the British boarding party, under slightly different circumstances, might have chosen to resist capture. In that scenario, the day could have ended with a surface naval engagement, an air strike on an Iranian naval base, and lots of blood and oil on the water. Next would come statesmen on all sides pondering what must be done to protect their nations’ prestige.

Senior leaders in Tehran must now be wondering what trouble their president will blunder into next. And whether he or Iran will be able to wriggle out from the next incident without gunfire and explosions. Military escalation, even if blundered into, plays right into the air and naval power dominance of the Americans. From this perspective, President Ahmadinejad may be America’s best friend and Iran’s walking time-bomb.

Blunder or purposeful. It is time to bite on the bait. Punish Iran and use some steel teeth.