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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (225942)	4/2/2007 12:59:34 AM
From: Proud Deplorable	Respond to of 281500

I think its also safe to say that Blair is an idiot.

To: epicure who wrote (225942)	4/3/2007 5:50:29 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 281500

Boundary experts say Britain, Iran can agree deal By Luke Baker Tue Apr 3, 10:10 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Shifting sands and a poorly defined maritime border could give Britain and Iran enough room to save face in their 12-day stand-off over a group of detained British sailors and marines, border experts say. Because the maritime boundaries off the Shatt al-Arab waterway, drawn up in 1975 but not updated since, are open to a certain degree of interpretation, Britain and Iran could "agree to disagree" over exactly who crossed into whose territory. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Tuesday the next 48 hours could prove critical as both the British and Iranian governments have sought to moderate their positions after several days of heightened tension. "It's certainly not an irresolvable dispute," said Martin Pratt, the director of the International Boundaries Research Unit at Britain's Durham University. "The fact that the coastline is constantly shifting means more issues would need to be taken into consideration than if the coastlines were more stable and there was agreement on exactly where the baselines along the coast were." Both the Iranian and British governments appear to have softened their stances in the past 24 hours, with each highlighting their desire to reach a negotiated solution. Pratt said that suggested both realized they couldn't afford to be too insistent about an issue that comes down to who says where exactly an incident occurred on a disputed boundary. "You can't be dogmatic about a maritime boundary that hasn't been properly agreed," he said. Maritime lawyers said they expected British and Iranian officials to be able to sort out the wording of any agreement themselves, without turning to an outside arbiter such as the United Nations, which has handled maritime disputes in the past. On Monday, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, called for a "delegation" to determine whether the British sailors were in Iran or not, but didn't define what sort of delegation. "I think there's plenty of scope in the uncertainty of the situation to be able to craft some kind of solution," said Richard Harvey, the head of admiralty and casualty practice at law firm Reed, Smith, Richards, Butler. "It strikes me that a) there is a lot of scope for disagreement and therefore b) quite a lot of scope for agreement." Blair said the next two days would be critical. "We're not looking for confrontation over this and actually the most important thing is to get the people back safe and sound. And if they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way the door is open," Blair told a radio station in Scotland.