Iran seizes three Royal Navy vessels

Eight Royal Navy sailors have been shown on Iranian television after their three small boats were seized by the Iranians.

Al Alam television said in a short report broadcast overnight on Monday the boats had contained weapons, cameras for spying and detailed maps of parts of Iraq and Iran. None of the British men spoke during the excerpt.

Iran has said the men were detained because they had sailed into Iranian territorial waters.

British diplomats are in touch with Iranian authorities in Tehran and London in a bid to resolve the matter which began on Monday when Britain reported it had "lost contact" with military personnel in the narrow Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq.

"Eight Royal Navy personnel from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq have been detained by the Iranian authorities while delivering a boat from Umm Qsar to Basra," the Ministry of Defence said.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said Britons were in the area helping to train Iraqi police.

While Tehran was deeply opposed to the U.S.-led war and occupation of Iraq, there has been little direct conflict up to now between the Shi'ite Muslim state and foreign forces along its western border.

The incident is likely to place further strain on Tehran's ties with London, which last week joined other European nations in condemning Iran for being less than fully cooperative with inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.

"This morning three British vessels with eight crew entered the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters and Iran's naval forces, acting on their legal duty, confiscated the vessels and arrested the crew," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement.

"The crew are under investigation in order to clarify the issue," he added.

Iran-UK talks after navy seizure

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- British diplomats have been holding talks with Iranian officials after three UK naval vessels were seized along with their crews for straying into Iranian waters.

Iranian officials say the boats entered their part of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway that divides Iran and Iraq and has long been a source of tension between both Gulf neighbors.

Iranian television showed pictures of the detainees and officials said the eight crew were being interrogated.

Britain has confirmed the seizure and says it is working with Tehran to resolve the situation.

The incident is likely to place further strain on London and Tehran after Britain last week joined other key U.N. members in accusing Iran of being uncooperative with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Iranian TV reports said maps and weapons carried on the British vessels had been confiscated.

But Britain's defense ministry said the sailors had only their personal weapons and had been delivering a boat.

"We can confirm that eight Royal Navy personnel from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq have been detained by the Iranian authorities while delivering a boat from Umm Qsar to Basra," a statement from the ministry said.

A ministry spokesman said the boats are the types used to train the Iraqi river patrol service in the waterway.

Tehran has given no indication when or if the crew and ships might be released.

A statement from Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran's naval officers had instructions to arrest anyone who illegally crossed into the territory.

Iraq and Iran both share the waterway, with their respective borders meeting in the middle.
The waterway is Iraq's main link with the Persian Gulf.

The 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war broke out when then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed the entire waterway.

BREAKING NEWS
IRAN 'TO PROSECUTE' BRITISH SAILORS


Iran is to prosecute eight British sailors detained for allegedly straying into Iranian territorial waters close to the Iraqi border, Al-Alam television is reporting, quoting Iranian military sources.

UAE to release Iranian sailors


09:47:15 Þ.Ù
Dubai, June 22 - A court here Monday ordered 11 Iranian fishermen arrested late last month by the Emirati coast guards in the Persian Gulf to be freed, an informed Iranian source said.

The Dubai court also lifted confiscation of their boat which was intercepted by an Emirati vessel on May 31, the source at the Iranian consulate here said.

Each Iranian however was slapped with 1,000 dirhams of cash fine, according to the source who asked to remain anonymous.

The sailors were fishing around the Iranian island of Abu Musa before drifting into the Emirati territory while 'tired and drowsy'.

The source said the consulate was trying to retain the sailors' identification cards and pave the way for their repatriation.

Tehran had demanded an explanation from the UAE over the incident, while playing down the spat.

"This is not anything new, but we have demanded an explanation from the United Arab Emirates since we consider this as an unacceptable measure," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-reza Asefi said.

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Iran to prosecute Royal Navy crew - Iran TV
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will prosecute eight British sailors held overnight along with their three boats after apparently straying into Iranian waters near the Iraqi border, Iran's state-run al Alam television says.

The incident -- the latest in a string of boat seizures in the Gulf area by Iran's Revolutionary Guards -- was the most serious between Iran and foreign forces operating in Iraq and likely to put a serious strain on ties between Tehran and London.
Britain said it was demanding an explanation from Tehran on the media reports that the sailors were to be prosecuted.

"We are trying to get the Iranians to explain exactly what they mean by that," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "They have got to come up with some answers to our questions and we are pressing them for answers."

Iran may free UK sailors soon
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Eight British sailors seized in Iranian waters could be released soon if investigations show their incursion was not ill-intended, an Iranian military official says, potentially defusing a serious diplomatic spat.

The Royal Navy personnel appeared in blindfolds on Iranian television on Tuesday and the British government summoned Iran's ambassador to London and called for their release.

Iranian television later broadcast footage of two sailors apologising for entering Iranian territorial waters.

"The team wrongly entered Iranian waters and we apologise for this mistake because it was a big mistake," one of the sailors, identified as Sergeant Thomas Hawkins, told al-Alam television in comments dubbed into Arabic.

Iran softens stance on British sailors, says it may release them

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran said Tuesday it could soon free eight British sailors seized a day earlier along the border with Iraq if interrogations show they had "no bad intention," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The comments by Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, an Iranian armed forces spokesman, suggested a softening of earlier statements that the sailors would be prosecuted. Iranian television at first showed the sailors blindfolded and seated cross-legged on the ground. Two of the sailors were shown on state-run television Tuesday night, reading a statement of apology for entering Iran's territorial waters and saying it was a mistake.

"My name is Sgt. Thomas Harkins from the British Royal Marines. I do apologize for entering Iranian territorial waters," one of the men said.

The men were standing next to a river. The broadcast, on Arabic language Al-Alam television, also showed the three British military patrol boats and weapons it said had been confiscated from the sailors.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Eight British servicemen have been freed after three nights in the hands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, ending a diplomatic wrangle that had threatened to inflame tensions over Britain's presence in Iraq.

British diplomats took custody of the eight naval personnel and flew with them to Tehran from the Gulf area where they were detained on Monday after straying into Iranian waters.

The servicemen were shown blindfolded on Iranian television shortly after their capture, but had also been treated by their captors later, as diplomacy progressed, to chopped meat stew.

Diplomatic relations had already soured over British pressure on Iran's atomic programme but Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted on Thursday he still backed a policy of engagement with Iran, despite the arrests.

"I am in no doubt at all that our policy of engagements with the government of Iran ... is the best approach," Straw said in London, shortly after the eight were released.

"We have worked hard on diplomatic relations with Iran ... Sometimes the relationships are complicated."