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.
In the past 1/4 century or so the new thing known as political islam has become popular. Whether they are going back to the 7th century might be debatable; they are looking to recover their lost empire and they will fail two ways. What they are going for is not anything like their lost empire, and they will never bring it about anyway.
I'm not having the temerity to accuse the U.S. of anything. When the US was doing the things that you mention the British were right next you, so they have no relevance to the argument at hand. I have nothing but respect for the U.S. military.
You had the 'temerity' to question 'what are the British doing there'? This is a false argument, given that the US has reacted in a similar fashion to the British in the same circumstances. The US navy also has precedent(incidents with Korea for example).
That is all I am saying. In fact, regional US commanders have praised the British for their restraint in this recent incident. The Queen's Navy is still a fine institution.
It just boggles my noodle.... When is the international community, including the United States gonna get: The only thing Muslims understand is OVERWHELMING FORCE. Shove it down their throats. NOTHING else works people! Talk just PLAYS INTO THEIR HANDS! Negotiation ONLY SERVES THEIR PURPOSES. Look, its Win or Die with these animals. Kill em. Talk later.
Its a FR tradition to thump ones chest from ones
BarcaLounger...
"There is nothing to be gained in provoking a confrontation, because that would be playing into their hands"
That's exactly what the Iranians calculated you would think. And as we see here, they were right.
Why were 15 British sailors sitting in dinghies?
How could they become surrounded by Iranian vessels?
Where was their mother ship and why would they allow the Iranians to leave with the sailors?
The mind boggles. Perhaps I'm naive and perhaps it would be the last order I ever gave, but if I were in command there would be NO WAY IN HELL my sailors would be taken without a fight.
jw
Go back and read along the thread - the answers to your questions are explained in detail by various posters.
Very quiet today - I haven't really seen much (any) news about this. I wonder what's up.
Thanks! :-)
That is to all who have their eyes open and a knowledge of history.
Thanks for the question............glad I could clarify.
Animal Farm it is......same author , sorry.
Iran has been supplying weapons being used to kill our soldiers in Iraq.
What you said reminds me of a quote I saw today:
“Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.” —Alexander Hamilton
I'm glad our country doesn't sell weapons to other nations.
There is a difference between terrorists and nations, and between free nations and evil dictatorships. Weapons are a fact of life, like automobiles and houses. Pray as much as you want, they are here to stay. Our weapons and those of allied free countries keep us safe from terrorists and rogue regimes.
Yes, even nostradamas said in 1550 that the islamofascists will live to regret their evil. Look up the relavent quatrain. He also said that paris gets nuced and that the left suffers the greatest damage in the coming nuclear exchange. Does that mean the left on the map of the atlantic(US)or the political left in europe?
Ahmanutjob is crazy as a loon, but even he would not wish to face the wrath of the Hildabeast. Can you imagine having that creature screaming at you?;)
"I'm also glad to read the definition of COBRA." I must admit I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I was hoping it was the British equivalent of our DELTA force and on the other, like you, I was thinking they should not be announcing this.
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