UK reveal Iran seizure evidence
Chart ... released by MoD
By ONLINE REPORTER
March 28, 2007
The seized sailors are from Royal Navy Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall
THE 15 British service personnel captured by Iran were well within Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized, the Ministry of Defence said today.
After the evidence was release the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the House of Commons that the UK would freeze all business with Iran until the crisis was resolved.
This afternoon Turkish television quotes from minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the wren (the female sailor) would be freed "either today or tomorrow".
However reports from Iran said the remaining servicemen will be paraded on the country's television channels.
The first signs of a breakthrough in the crisis came less than two hours after Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to “ratchet up” the pressure on Tehran over the detention of the 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines held last week.
At a briefing in London earlier today, the MoD said it “unambiguously contested” claims from Tehran that the UK vessel carrying the sailors and marines had strayed into Iranian waters.
GPS ... reading at time of incident
Vice Admiral Charles Style told reporters the craft was in fact 1.7 nautical miles inside the Iraqi part of the Shatt al Arab waterway, which forms the border between the two countries.
Admiral Style said the Iranians gave two different positions for the Royal Navy boarding party - the first inside Iraqi territorial waters.
And he said the party had been “ambushed” after the search of their vessel and that their detention was “unjustified and wrong”.
The group of sailors and marines seized last Friday include married mother-of-one Faye Turney and 21-year-old Paul Barton.
All 15 British personnel were detained at gunpoint after they boarded a ship carrying suspicious cargo off the coast of Iraq.
In the Commons Mrs Beckett said all business with Iran would be frozen until captured British service personnel were freed.
The Foreign Secretary said the situation had now entered a “new phase of diplomatic activity”, and all other official bilateral business with Iran was being frozen until it was resolved.
After the MoD released its evidence that the Brits’ were in Iraqi waters, Mrs Beckett said the Government found it “impossible to believe, given the seriousness of the incident, that the Iranians could have made such a mistake with the original co-ordinates”.
Mrs Beckett said that even if the British vessels had been in Iranian waters, the “very most” Iran would have been entitled to do was require them to leave immediately.
Admiral Style said the co-ordinates had been confirmed publicly by the Iraqi foreign ministry.
He added that the Iranian government had provided Britain with two different positions for the incident - the first placing it within Iraqi waters.
“We pointed this out to them on Sunday in diplomatic contacts,” he said.
“After we did this they then provided a second set of co-ordinates that places the incident in Iranian waters, over two nautical miles from the position given by HMS Cornwall and confirmed by the merchant vessel.
“It is is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of co-ordinates.
“In any case we unambiguously contest both the positions provided by the Iranians.”
thesun.co.uk
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The Iranians are completely in the wrong.