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.
What intelligence agents are you talking about? The sailors and Marines were part of a routine patrol that inspects ships for smuggling activities. They had just finished inspecting a dhow, so we're not even talking about inspecting anything very significant in the shipping world. And they just were in rubber rafts, so it wasn't really a high-risk seizure (since the Iranians were pretty confident that there'd be no attempt to stop them).
As for the Iranian intelligence agents, they were captured in Iraq; and the one who defected, if that's what happened, is certainly not going back.
I don't think there'll be any "exchange," but on the other hand, I don't think this is going to be a major crisis. It's just a typical part of Iranian behavior, and we have tolerated this kind of thing for nearly 40 years now, so there's no reason to expect a change. They'll get some propaganda value out of it and then realease the sailors.
No need to be pessimistic or worry about it too much.
This incident will soon be resolved with an exchange of the Iranians diplomats snatched by the Iraqis.
I think the Iranians want their people back just as the British want theirs back. This is a case for diplomacy and Blair is using the correct approach to resolve it.
Read the article again. This happened a few years ago and nothing was done. The Iranians still have the equipment.
"If Jimmy carter had sack when they took our embassy guys we wouldnt be in Iraq today IMHO"
There is a lot to be said about that, and I wonder just how different the situation might be today, if there had been a serious military response. It seems to me, this is the debate about this new hostage crisis. What SHOULD be done, what is IMPORTANT to do, and what are the consequences of RESPONDING or NOT RESPONDING in a certain way.
Unbefreakinglievable.
"Iran seized the British sailors in Iraqi waters, so an attempt to justify ownership of Iraqi territory does not make sense."
When Iraq invaded Iran, part of it had to deal with ownership of the waterwaty. The Iranians are accusing the British of being on their sovereign territory illegally. Right now that is the issue.
Were they? If they were in Iranian territory, then technically the British sailors can be considered spies and any negotiation on Irns part is from strength.
If it is Iraqi territory and Britain backs down then it only emboldens Iran to do more. So the British better do something to make Iran back away.
First you call the british navy personnel who were captured "intellegence agents" and now you call the Iranians caught in Iraq "diplomats". Who are are?
These are quotes from Iran I collected over the past two years
http://vincep312.home.comcast.net/iran.html
“The final goal of the revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”. - commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi
an advisor to the new Iranian govt says his country’s objective is the destruction of the evil in the world perputated by England and the nations derived from England
commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, said on state television, “The final goal of the [1979] revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”. “God willing, the 21st century will see the defeat of the U.S. and the Zionists, and the victory of freedom-seeking nations of the world”.
Commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, said on state television. “God willing, the 21st century will see the defeat of the U.S. and the Zionists, and the victory of freedom-seeking nations of the world. The final goal of the [1979] revolution is to create global Islamic rule and a regime of law to be led by the Imam Mahdi”.
The [Iranians] President’s chief strategist, Hassan Abbassi, has come up with a war plan based on the premise that “Britain is the mother of all evils” – the evils being America, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the Gulf states and even Canada, all of whom are the malign progeny of the British Empire. “We have a strategy drawn up for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization,” says Mr Abbassi. “There are 29 sensitive sites in the U.S. and in the West. We have already spied on these sites and we know how we are going to attack them… Once we have defeated the Anglo-Saxons the rest will run for cover.”
The IRGC chief warned that Iran was seeing through “critical days” and “fate-determining years”. He described the purpose of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution as the “Salvation of Muslims” from the hands of the “oppressive U.S. and Israel”.
no question if jimmy carter had turned the us air force loose on Iran immeadiately that they took the embassy and continued bombing until the embassy guys were either released , or god forbid, executed we would not be in iraq and al qaeda would not have attacked NYC.
why? because that first act of us cowardice and weakness, by carter, set the pattern for everything to folow: BEIRUT, MOGADISHU, Bush 1 not getting it done in Iraq the first time, bill clinton fanning on osama bin laden, etc etc etc.
History is clear. the choice is not war or peace. the choice is:
small war now, or big war later masquerading as peace now.
now we got the big war. thanks Jimmy Carter.
Who are are = Who are you?
What in the world would we need a draft for? Do you think we'll be sending land troops into Iran? Maybe you never heard of the ICBM or SLBM.
"Who are you?"
I believe bau bau is a place in Indonesia. Make of it what you will.
"The United States should immediately bomb and destroy Iran's oil pipelines, shutting off their supply of money in the process, wrecking their economy if they don't meet our demands. Imagine that! We demand!
These tin-horned dictators seem to forget that the United States has the power to vaporize their countries in about one hour. They need to be physically reminded."
I agree! Action should be taken immediately!! Iran should be told they have just hours to release the Brits or else!
you think Iran is in this JUST to get their agents back?? This is a huge power play with a lot more at stake than a few abducted soldiers. There are U.S. troops and military assets in Iraq, Afganistan, Arabian Sea, etc. practically surrounding Iran. Their nuke program is under intense global scrutiny. They just got hit with more U.N. sanctions. Significant domestic dissent.
These abducted soldiers are just pawns in a bigger higher stakes game. And while you may be right that a simple exchange of prisoners may be how this is resolved, it also (at least from the Iranian perspective) serves to take the focus off some of the other issues they are dealing with
"now we got the big war. thanks Jimmy Carter."
I wonder if Jimmuh ever lets this notion slip into his thinking about the current world situation?
I wonder how much of this is influenced by what happened when Hezbollah captured one (or more?) Israeli soldiers at the northern border of Israel. I agree, I don't Iran is doing this just to get back their agents.
Given the heated level of your rhetoric, and your apparent inability to challenge anyone about this on an intellectual plane--resorting instead to personal insults and stereotypes--I suspect that you are a liberal.
Cheers!
You got some kids? Send them over we'll show the world how brave I am!
Those "kids" are well trained men and women and most of them signed up and volunteered to go over there because they are the mission.
If someone isn't willing to agree with you bunch of yahoos they must be a Democrat
Well, you do seem to talk like a duck.
Bombs away!
Actually that is more what I was saying...Smoke 'em if you got 'em!
Maybe *that's* how John Kerry got confused as to his whereabouts in Cambodia, eh? No GPS!
Cheers!
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