Seized Britons face prosecution after Tehran claims 'confession'

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Syndyre

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Iran's playing with fire here:

ran defiantly rebuffed international demands yesterday for the release of 15 seized British naval personnel, claiming that the sailors and Royal Marines had confessed to entering its waters in an illegal act of aggression, and were now to be prosecuted in the Iranian capital.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, claimed in a statement that the Britons were engaged 'in illegal and suspicious' activities, suggesting that Iran might claim they were spying.
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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2042289,00.html

This is interesting too:

So Britain is the common enemy and - potentially - the great unifier. Whenever national or patriotic unity is required, the spectre of British enmity can provide a convenient catalyst.

In last week's No Rouz (Iranian new year) message to the nation, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hinted that Iran might act 'illegally' to pursue its nuclear programme. 'Until today, what we have done is in accordance with international regulations. But if they take illegal actions, we too can take illegal actions and will do so,' he said.

He did not elaborate. But a deliberately-engineered dispute with Britain could serve to silence domestic criticism of Ahmadinejad's abrasive handling of the nuclear issue, which Khamenei has felt obliged to support.
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http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2042259,00.html
 
Definitely looks like a setup:

Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, quoted an Iranian military source as saying that the aim was to trade the Royal Marines and sailors for these Guards.

The claim was backed by other sources in Tehran. “As soon as the corps’s five members are released, the Britons can go home,” said one source close to the Guards.
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Subhi Sadek, the Guards’ weekly newspaper, warned last weekend that the force had “the ability to capture a bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks”.

Safavi is known to be furious about the recent defections to the West of three senior Guards officers, including a general, and the effect of UN sanctions on his own finances.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1563877.ece
 
very volatile, must be some negotiating happening in the background, oh to be a fly on the wall.
watch oil, will definitely react on any further tensions, SOL be the one!
 
Would be interesting to know if the RN vessel in question was on an ELINT mission.
 
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bwana said:
Weren't the sailors seized during an inspection of another vessel?
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RN could have been involved in an ELINT mission or a patrol of the Iraqi coastal waters.

IIRC the U.S. lost two ELINT vessels (Pueblo seized by NK and Liberty during the Yom-Kippur War).

But I guess the true circumstances regarding the capture of the RN personnel will only be known by the MoD.
 
RompelStompel said:
RN could have been involved in an ELINT mission or a patrol of the Iraqi coastal waters.

IIRC the U.S. lost two ELINT vessels (Pueblo seized by NK and Liberty during the Yom-Kippur War).

But I guess the true circumstances regarding the capture of the RN personnel will only be known by the MoD.
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Wasn't the US plane that was forced to land in China a few years ago also involved in ELINT?
 
That's the one yeah. Iran's really getting ridiculous now. Send in the SAS and get them out.
 
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