Posted on 03/25/2007 5:17:55 AM PDT by Dog
THE official notification, delivered in secure calls yesterday morning to senior Whitehall figures, was the latest dramatic behind-the-scenes move to get to grips with a crisis that is now engulfing the government.
After a day of shadow-boxing with a notoriously slippery regime, Tony Blair is set to up the ante: the plight of the Shatt al-Arab 15 is officially a crisis and he will need the Cobra team to handle it.
The clutch of VIPs will gather in an operations room several floors below Downing Street as early as this afternoon to plot an escape from a military spat that now threatens to become an international incident.
The decision came just 24 hours after the crew of HMS Cornwall had been caught in the confusion of direct confrontation with Iranian vessels in the searing heat of the Gulf.
As the crew members were surrounded in their two rubber dinghies, the Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, frantically radioed back to his own top brass for instructions.
The response to the inquiry, which had been immediately patched through to Ministry of Defence headquarters in Whitehall, was to hold fire.
The order to show restraint has been observed throughout the forces and the British government in the 48 hours since, but it is unclear how long both sides will be able to maintain control.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's first response to the gathering crisis on Friday was to keep to diplomatic conventions. After a hurried phone call to Blair, she immediately summoned Iran's ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, to her office to explain their behaviour.
After a meeting described by officials as "brisk but polite", Beckett emerged to stress that she was "extremely disturbed" by events.
It was an understated description of the deep concern now gripping the government. Not only was Blair's administration alarmed at the risk to the 15 military personnel, which included at least one woman, but it was in no doubt over Tehran's ability to use their plight to make a wider point.
During a flurry of diplomatic activity in the hours after the snatch, the Iranians' rhetoric repeatedly elevated their action, and the alleged motives of the British, to a multinational affair. It was the eve of a second UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions over Iran's refusal to halt its programme to enrich uranium. The Shatt al-Arab 15 were, from the start, pawns in a perilous international game.
"It looks like too much of a coincidence," a senior Foreign Office insider confirmed.
The response was a no- nonsense demand for Iran to relent - and Britain freely used the international community to back up its case. Beckett dispatched the UK chargé d'affaires, Kate Smith, to confront the government in Tehran, armed with the insistence that the British sailors had been in Iraqi waters.
In the meantime, Blair made a personal call to European allies, including EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, to secure a public denunciation of the Iranians' actions.
"It was impressed on everyone how important it was to raise the diplomatic temperature, rather than keep a low profile and let them make a song and dance of the situation," one defence official said.
"There is nothing to be gained in provoking a confrontation, because that would be playing into their hands. But neither should we let them have it all their way. We tried that before and we're still trying to get our kit back."
The smaller-scale precedent, the taking of six British marines and two sailors on the same waterway in June 2004, was a painful lesson. The personnel were only returned after they had been paraded blindfold on Iranian television and admitted entering Iranian waters illegally. Three years on, the government is still pressing Iran for the return of its boats and kit, including valuable radar equipment.
The degree of concern felt across Whitehall was demonstrated yesterday, when Movahedian was called back to the Foreign Office, this time to see Beckett's minister, Lord Triesman. The British were clearly attempting to warn off Tehran before it could begin to use the servicemen and women as a significant propaganda tool.
It was, however, a race against time - and through it all, the diplomats and the politicians were acutely aware that Tehran has built a foreign policy on disregarding diplomatic niceties.
Top level COBRA is an acronym for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A, where its meetings are held.
Tony Blair, senior ministers, police and security chiefs all take part. It is called after events such as 9/11, 7/7
and can evoke emergency powers such as suspending Parliament or restricting movement.
Negotiating with terrorists should never be an option.
The time and place for a confrontation is when you are prepared to do what you need to do to make the other guy say "Uncle." Obviously, the Brits are not yet ready to do this. but they had better get there because every day this crap is allowed to continue, the chance to grasp the initiative recedes. Maybe Blair could consult with Jimmuh Carter on what good protracted diplomatic dancing does with these vermin.
The writer finally tells us what the hell
COBRA stands for in the paragraph.
The longer we delay this WWIII, the more your children wont have to worry about being drafted.
Better wake up.
This has been coming for decades.
These guys?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=H8Tva6i9O0Q
Imagine a police sergeant, sitting in his squad car, watching a bunch of criminals take on his own men, who were simply patrolling and enforcing the law. Rather than simply going to the aid of his men, the sergeant calls the precinct, who tells him to do nothing, but keep watching!
If the sergeant reacted correctly, his men would be safe. He might lose his career for stirring up the criminals and making them outraged over their loses, but his men would be safe. Yes, the news media of the city would call him a loose cannon, a war starter, a stirrer of pots. Leftist politicians would be outraged. BUT HIS MEN WOULD BE SAFE!
What to do, what to do.....?
From what I understand, the incident took place in what is recognized internationally as Iraqi territory. Iran can claim whatever they please, but that does not mean their claim holds any weight outside of the Iranians minds.
The issue you speak of is nothing other than a diplomatic talking point aimed at stalling a response, but it wouldn't matter if they made that claim or not, the British won't respond with anything other than talk, or else their 15 sailors wouldn't be in Iranian custody.
It was an act of war, and the U.K. froze and backed down when they should have fought. Perhaps this will at least be a wakeup call for the rest of our forces in the region. If such an incident happens again, they should now be prepared to fight instead of wimping out as the British did on this occasion.
"But seriously - England is a member of NATO. Does that mean anything?"
It means very little of late.
I don't think it was the primary influence for their move as Iran has pulled this stuff before ala'9 the 1979 hostage crisis and in 04' they snagged a # of British marines and they got away with both those maneuvers (but at the cost of becoming an international pariah state). However, the Hezbollah move last summer did illustrate that a stunt like this may invite a survivable limited conflict where just surviving equals victory
ran doesn't have what it takes to start a world war we would end them in a week just like all the rest.
What planet do you live on? America doesn't have the WILL to defeat an enemy - we're divided and hamstrung.
Jeez louise, wouldn't it have been better to defend them on the water than try to get them back from Iran? If they're not prepared and willing to defend themselves they should just go home.
And...you are doing a lot to help aren't you. Calling people yahoos is a real contribution, really moves the discussion to a higher plane. A bit of huffing and puffing and muscleflexing never hurt anyone, even if it doesn't change things. If it scares you then fine. Just say so and go home.
Did Javier Solana say this? Or did Blair? It was unclear to me in the post.
"There is nothing to be gained in provoking a confrontation, because that would be playing into their hands."
I agree with John Mill's thought below.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-John Stuart Mill
I think Iran has finally crossed the line. Sounds like they're heading for a serious butt-whooping. Russia and China better not get in the way either.
Iranian student groups called yesterday for the 15 detainees to be held until US forces released five Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq earlier this year.
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.
He said the tactic had been approved by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who warned last week that Tehran would take “illegal actions” if necessary to maintain its right to develop a nuclear programme.
When I saw COBRA, it evoked a Chuck Norris movie or a Stallone movie.
Now that I can see what it is, I really had a good chuckle.
What an idiot. You think capturing 15 people is equivalent to looking at someone the wrong way? Talking about other peoples lives, you are willing to trade 15 lives so you can be safe. You are a gutless wonder, and it wouldn't take an all out war to get them back and even if it did somethings are worth fighting for, 15 lives is one of them, or one life if it comes to that.
I suppose you think we should let them kidnap however meany they want and impose their will upon them as long as you can be safe at home not fighting or not having your children fight.
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