Posted on 03/31/2007 8:33:43 PM PDT by jdm
LONDON Mar 31, 2007 (AP) — An Iranian opposition group claimed Saturday that Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines was planned in advance and carried out in retaliation for the U.N. sanctions imposed against the country, as an Iranian diplomat said the case had entered a legal phase.
Gholam-Reza Ansari, the Iranian ambassador to Russia, made his comments to Russian television Vesti-24 on Friday and was quoted by IRNA on its Web site as saying, "the case of the detention of British sailors has taken on a judicial form."
IRNA originally quoted the ambassador Saturday morning as saying the sailors could be "tried if there is enough evidence of guilt." But the agency published a correction later claiming Ansari's comments were incorrectly translated by Russian television. The Russian TV station could not immediately be reached for comment.
Asked about Ansari's remarks earlier Saturday before IRNA reported that he was misquoted, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett urged Iran to resolve the crisis peacefully.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran the political wing of the Iranian MEK opposition group which is listed as a terrorist group by Britain, the U.S. and the European Union said the British crew's capture was planned in advance, but offered no evidence to support the claims.
The British sailors were detained by Iranian naval units March 23 while patrolling for smugglers near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway that has long been a disputed dividing line between Iraq and Iran. Iran claims the Britons were in its territory; Britain and the Iraqi government say they were taken captive in Iraqi waters.
Iran appears intent on sending a message of strength as it faces mounting U.N. Nations sanctions over its uranium enrichment program, which the U.S. and other nations suspect the Islamic Republic is using to develop nuclear weapons.
Hossein Abedini, a member of the opposition group's foreign affairs committee, claimed the group had obtained information from sources within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard and had passed details to the British government. He did not provide any evidence or give further details.
Britain's Foreign Office said it could not comment on Abedini's allegation, or say if it had evidence the operation was pre-planned. A spokeswoman said the MEK was a banned organization under British anti-terrorism laws meaning the government had no dealings with the group.
Abedini told a London press conference that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval garrison had been on alert from the night before the kidnapping, to prepare for the operation.
Mohammad Mohaddessin, who handles foreign affairs for the council, said in a statement that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered the detention of the Britons in the hope of pressuring the British government over a threat to toughen U.N. sanctions.
"You can see that the clerical regime had in a premeditated act arrested British sailors in order to win concessions from the international community and divert attention from its nuclear project," Abedini said. "Claims that the sailors were arrested in Iranian territorial waters are baseless."
Britain's Foreign Office reiterated that the personnel "were in Iraqi waters and we continue to request immediate consular access to them and their immediate release."
Britain has frozen most contacts with Iran and referred the issue to the U.N. Security Council, which expressed "grave concern" on Thursday over Iran's seizure last week of the Britons.
Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami told reporters on Saturday that he hopes the current standoff will be resolved peacefully "instead of facing a new disaster not only for Iranian-British relations, but for Iran internationally."
I guess the Iranian dissidents forgot to Google "Gulf of Tonkin"
A senior British naval officer will leave for Tehran in efforts to negotiate an agreement with Iran for the release of 15 kidnapped British sailors, according to a report by the Sunday Telegraph. (Ynet)
THIS IS AN ACT OF WAR!!!
Are there no men left who will stand up for what's right?!
What world am I growing up into?
"Ministers are preparing a compromise deal to allow Iran to save face and release its 15 British military captives by promising that the Royal Navy will never knowingly enter Iranian waters without permission."
Note: They're 'captives' not hostages.
This is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. By the way, has Hezbollah released that Israeli soldier yet?
I hate to say it, because I love the Britons, but what kind of military outfit surrenders to a bunch of thugs? First, the vaunted Israeli army lets Hezbollah eat their lunch, then the British can't muster the will to threaten military retaliation against a terrorist government, and now the U.S. Congress has issued its surrender to al Qaeda? who in the U.K. thinks that the way to deal with Iran is to pretend they give a crap about sanctions? Did the U.S. State Department all get jobs at 10 Downing? This is NUTS. These people WILL. NOT. STOP. Ahmadinejad has one immediate goal, and that's to control the shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf. After that, it's the conquest of Saudi Arabia. With a medium range nuclear weapon in his arsenal, he can hold Europe hostage and do what he wants.
This is not the time for everyone to go soft, but here we sit, sending special envoys to smooth over a tyrant. I fear greatly for the future. Greatly.
Or as the immigration treason lobby likes to call criminal illegal aliens - undocumentd entrants.
amen!!! i own a landscape company in massachusetts and I'm losing customers to ILLEGAL ALIENS who are here illegally working for ridiculously low fees. ALL illegals out NOW, and ENFORCE OUR BORDERS! america is selling out and falling apart FAST
But, but, but Rosie O said they were in Iranian waters and tried to get caught so the Brits could start WW3.
No, really, this is watching the end of western civilization. We don't care to preserve what we've created any longer. So, like others before us, we are relegating ourselves to stuff of dusty museums and college students who write theses on our rise and fall.
Same thing is happening in every city and town in the country. You are losing your business and American citizens are losing their jobs. But the worst part of it is America is losing its culture, heritage and freedom to massive hordes of invaders. Our children are losing their future.
Here where I live I can go down a major road and count at least a hundred or more of illegal aliens under bridges, overpasses, stop signs and shopping centers waiting for someone to pick them up for work. They even have signs for "Day Labor Pickup."
Illegal immigration has consequences.
"I fear greatly for the future---"
Do not fear---just read the Bible and know exactly where this world is headed---while I cannot tell you each and every move to come and the exact time they will happen, it is simple to understand what is to come to put an end to the wicked, sinful world we now live in---Keep the faith and you will lose any fears
What about the four or five senior Iranian military people missing in Turkey?
I still don't understand why they just didn't blow away those Iranians as soon as they were known to be unfriendly. Were they unarmed?
I read your bio - I am awe-inspired.
I know that God will take care of us, but it's still frightening to witness the wholesale submission of the West to an Islamic tyrant.
Gulf of Tonkin...LOL
I will tell you. Liberals will never get out of the 60s in their minds.
hahaha
There is no submission.
Just wait and see. The Americans and the Brits are starting to get fed up.
You are an 84 year old WW2 Vet ! I always wanted to walk up to one of you guys, give you a giant bear hug and say thank you.
God bless you my brother !
I, too, want to express my awe at the things your home page says about your accomplishments. I also want to express my appreciation. Your generation was made of sterner stuff.
Remember this is the guy who with his 'jaw jaw not war war' kept the nazis busy While we built our airfields and our Spitfire's and Hurricanes, he allowed the development of various technical military advances ie Radar and sonar and most importantly approved the building of an integrated air defenses network that proved itself, exactly at the right moment in world history.
That 'guy' was an appeaser par excellence. Ask the Czechs what they think about Chamberlain.
And you might dwell on Sir Winston Churchill's wiser words when he said "You have chosen dishonor over war. And you shall have both."
I can't help but notice that they didn't attempt to capture any Americans. If they had, I sincerely hope we'd make them pay.
This just points out the bizarre nature of the Geneva Conventions. The bad guys just don't have to play because there are no consequences of just doing what ever they please.
Iran has never experienced consequences for their actions. This has always been justified by pointing to the possibility of "Moderates" fixing the situation. As long as I have been an adult nearly 30 years this same canard has paralyzed the West into inaction against the most egregious behavior. I just don't buy it anymore. Each time they don't pay an overwhelming price for such adventures, they see it as God's support for their evil. Whats the point in feeding that monster?
I think Blair and Bush need to Google "testicles"
What else can they do? There is no U.N. backing to invade Iran, and Britain will never do anything without that.
Watching the History Channel's recent specials on the Visigoths and the Vandals vs. Rome made it all too clear what our future is.
I have read it. It doesn't say anything about the United States. It doesn't give a timeline. It is no comfort at all given what is going on in the West.
THAT is what this is all about. It has nothing to do with sanctions.
You're an idiot. The Iranians took these sailors in an effort to fire up their pitiful street. Their media has shown these white devils 24/7 since they were kidnapped. It's the way the hairy asses do their business. This entire escalation of the last couple of years is all about provoking an attack from the west. The 70's revolutionaries in Iran are getting old and they want to engineer a confrontation with the west to bolster their standing with their ignorant street and restless youth. The rest will go along. Kidnap in the ME is like I dunno, a glorified act.
Has it ever occurred that we wage war on our terms? I am not talking about instigating war, I am talking about engaging in it when it is instigated upon us. This current incident with Iran, I pray for our Ally's in captivity, I also pray for cooler hands to prevail with measured response (note* Not restrained response, response that is appropriate to the situation).
Americans and Brits are exceptionally tolerant, but we do have a line. Has it been reached? For me it has, but then again, I no longer wear the uniform and trying to understand the position of those ordering the whoop ass that should be headed Iran's way, I would do everything in my power to set the stage to wage war on my terms, not on some 12th imam hoping suckers terms.
Right now, I think patience and a whole lot of spook work will set the stage for some soon to be homeless (and hopefully) bodiless mullahs.
You're preaching to the choir but while doing so, you clearly elevated the debate with your name calling.
Have a nice day!
Good post...things are afoot.
I suspect it was an effort to hasten Britain's withdrawal from the Mideast....just like bombing Spain right before their election hastened their surrender.
/sarc is useful. I do the same thing sometimes and assume the reader is in my frame of mind. No problem. If you were serious my comment would have stood.
Reminds one of the USS Cole does it not?
No problem friend. We are all frustrated when we see weak responses to threats!
Right now, I think patience and a whole lot of spook work will set the stage for some soon to be homeless (and hopefully) bodiless mullahs.
NOW (and should have been long ago) is the time to unleash the spooks and SOCOM for black ops on Iran. Make the mullahs afraid to leave their homes. Then oops, a natural gas leak. Mullah meets 72 Helen Thomases (no picture please).
I don't know what fighting you saw between ISrael and Hezbola, but your assessment of eating ones lunch, is far from what happened. Actually, Hezzbola got their ass wuppt.. Yea they shot a thousand missiles into Israel, but Hezbola and their misguided people suffered greatly, and their hideouts have been destroyed.
Some say 'isn't it odd the way things worked out'.
Others might think it isn't odd at all 'thank God'
We lived in a very sinful, wicked, and dangerous world during the late 1930's and the first half of the 1940's.
Fortunately, we had enough leaders around the world who realized it.
More important, we had men like yourself from America and our allies, who crushed and destroyed that evil. Thank you.
Our danger now are the left wing leaders in America, the UK, Canada and Europe, who love serial killer despots like $addam, Fidel, Mao and the current Islamofascits thugs controlling Iran. If they get their way, our world may be doomed.
We must pray and keep that from happening.
Thanks for your service decades ago which with others like you, enabled us to be alive and free today.
Thanks for the best but sad laugh of the morning!
Those would be wood boats, (Rosie hates wood.) because never before in history has fire melted steel. Therefore steel boats are impossible to manufacture.
It would be hard to believe that it happened by accident.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
