Iran Frees British Sailors After Two Days
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By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran released eight British sailors detained for illegally entering Iranian waters two days earlier, but said Wednesday it was keeping their three boats.
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AFP
Slideshow: Iran Confiscates British Military Boats
Iran Says It May Release British Sailors
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"The eight British sailors, including six soldiers and two ranking military officials, have been released," a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told The Associated Press. She said that while they were no longer detained, the sailors had not yet been handed over to British authorities. She gave no further details.
State-run television reported that the sailors would leave Iran without the three military patrol boats and some unspecified equipment.
The men were detained Monday in the Shatt al-Arab waterway that runs along the Iran-Iraq (news - web sites) border as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. The waterway is known in Iran as the Arvand River.
A top military official had said the sailors were being released because their intrusion into Iran's waters was apparently a mistake. Two of the sailors had been shown on Iranian TV on Tuesday, blindfolded and seated cross-legged on the ground.
"My name is Sergeant Thomas Harkins from the British Royal Marines. I do apologize for entering Iranian territorial waters," the one said on Al-Alam, an Arabic-language station.
The broadcast also showed the men standing next to a river and reading from a prepared text. It also showed the three British military patrol boats and weapons it said had been confiscated from the sailors.
Iran had earlier said the men would be prosecuted.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman told AP that Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal played a key role in resolving the minor border incident that had threatened to turn into a major diplomatic crisis.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had phoned Kharrazi on Tuesday to ask for the release of the sailors, who were shown on Iranian television blindfolded and seated cross-legged on the ground.
The waterway, Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf that divides Iran and Iraq, has long been a source of tension between the neighbors. The 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war broke out after Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) claimed the entire waterway.
Iran said the British vessels were about a half-mile inside Iranian territorial waters.
British-Iranian relations have run hot and cold for years. The detentions follow a fresh strain after London helped draft a resolution rebuking Iran for past nuclear cover-ups at last week's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors.
Iran says its program is aimed only at producing energy, while the United States accuses Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. Iran accused Britain, which it had seen as a partner in the investigation into its nuclear activities, of caving in to U.S. pressure.
Iranians repeatedly demonstrated in front of the British Embassy in Tehran last month, throwing stones at the building to protest the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. Britain is America's main coalition partner in Iraq.
Protesters also condemned war damage to Shiite holy shrines in Iraq, demanded the expulsion of the British ambassador to Tehran and called for the embassy to be closed.
British-Iranian ties also were strained in 1989 when the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against British author Salman Rushdie.
In 1998, the Iranian government declared it would not support the fatwa and the two countries exchanged ambassadors in 1999.
In 2002, Iran rejected a British candidate for ambassador, claiming he was a Jewish spy. A year later, shots were fired at the British Embassy in Tehran, after Britain briefly held an Iranian diplomat accused of helping to mastermind the car bombing of a Jewish center in Argentina.
Iran has expressed pleasure over the toppling of Saddam, but has strongly opposed deployment of U.S.-led coalition forces on its borders, citing security concerns. |
