Learn Chinese - Brit presses Iran; woman may be freed

WORLD / Middle East

Brit presses Iran; woman may be freed

(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-28 21:04

A British patrol boat conducts a patrol in the Shatt al-Arab waterways of
Basra, south of Baghdad, February 15, 2007. [Reuters]

LONDON - Britain said it was freezing talks on all other issues with Iran
until it freed 15 Royal Navy crew members seized last week, and the
British military released what it said was proof its boats were within
Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.

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Iran seizes 15 British sailors

Iran's foreign minister said meanwhile a female British sailor held
captive by Iran may be released later Wednesday or on Thursday, a Turkish
TV station reported.

"The woman soldier is free either today or tomorrow," CNN-Turk television
quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on the sidelines of
an Arab summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said
the woman, identified as sailor Faye Turney, 26, had been given privacy.

Britain's military said its vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi
waters when Iran seized the sailors and marines on Friday.

Vice Adm. Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a
position on Sunday - a location that he said was in Iraqi waters. By
Tuesday, Iranian officials had given a revised position 2 miles east,
placing the British inside Iranian waters - a claim he said was not
verified by global positioning system coordinates.

"It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of
coordinates," Style said.

Style gave the satellite coordinates of the British crew as 29 degrees
50.36 minutes north latitude and 048 degrees 43.08 minutes east
longitude, and said it had been confirmed by an Indian-flagged merchant
ship boarded by the sailors and marines.

Prime Minister

Tony Blair told the House of Commons that "there was no justification
whatever ... for their detention, it was completely unacceptable, wrong
and illegal."

"We had hoped to see their immediate release; this has not happened. It
is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure in
order to make sure the Iranian government understands its total isolation
on this issue," Blair said.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain had frozen
bilateral talks with Iran on all other issues until Tehran frees the crew.

"No one should be in any doubt about the seriousness with which we regard
these events," Beckett told lawmakers.

Blair said he believed the crew acted sensibly in not putting up fight
after being confronted by six Iranian vessels.

"If they had engaged in military combat at that stage, there would have
undoubtedly been severe loss of life. I think they took the right
decision and did what was entirely sensible," Blair said.

Britain and the United States have said the crew was intercepted after
completing a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt
al-Arab waterway, where the border between Iran and

Iraq has been disputed for centuries.

Iran has said the 15 were being treated well, but refused to say where
they were being held, or rule out the possibility that they could be
brought to trial for allegedly entering Iranian waters.

The Iranian Embassy statement said: "We are confident that Iranian and
British governments are capable of resolving this security case through
their close contacts and cooperation."

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said
the case was following normal procedures, holding out the possibility
that the Britons could be brought to trial.

He said the Britons were being treated well and that the only woman among
the sailors, 26-year-old Faye Turney, had been given privacy.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been
treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," Hosseini told The
Associated Press.

In talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Beckett
demanded that British diplomats be allowed to meet with the crew to make
their own assessment.

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