Posted on 03/25/2007 3:53:53 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult
Britain does not know where fifteen captured British servicemen are being held, the Government said today as crisis talks continued to secure their release.
Foreign Office Minister Lord Triesman, speaking as the British ambassador in Tehran held talks with the Iranian regime, repeated demands for the group to be freed.
"We do not know where they are, I wish we did," he told Sky News amid reports the sailors and Marines, including one woman, had been taken to the capital.
"We are asking to know whether they are being moved around in Iran."
The minister, who held an hour of "frank" discussions with the Iranian ambassador yesterday, said: "We have been insisting that they should be released immediately - there is no reason to hold them - that they should be released unharmed and that we should be in a position to assure their families that they are in good health and that they are safe."
The United Nations, meanwhile, stepped up the pressure on Iran to free them when it agreed new sanctions against the country's nuclear development.
Meanwhile, Germany, which holds the European Union presidency, called for the immediate release of the 15 British Navy personnel - thought to include a woman.
A statement issued in the name of the presidency read: "The Presidency of the Council of the European Union calls upon the Iranian Government to immediately release the 15 British seamen detained yesterday.
"It is consulting closely in this matter with the Government of the UK. The German ambassador in Tehran has made a demarche vis-a-vis the Iranian government in the same vein."
The statement was issued at the European Union's 50th anniversary summit in Berlin, which Tony Blair is attending.
The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously last night to impose tougher sanctions against Iran, hoping to send a strong message to Tehran that it would grow more isolated by refusing to suspend enrichment.
The moderately more stringent UN sanctions include banning Iranian arms exports and freezing the assets of 28 additional people and organisations involved in Iran's alleged nuclear missile programmes. The council voted 15-0 in favour of the proposals.
Talks resumed yesterday in London to secure the release of the group of eight sailors and seven Marines.
The troops, from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall, were carrying out a routine search of a large cargo dhow which they suspected of smuggling.
Tehran-based news agency Fars claimed the seamen have admitted illegally sailing into Iranian waters and that satellite tracking systems on the British boats proved they were inside Iranian territory.
Iran accused the Navy of a "blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters" but Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and the Ministry of Defence remain adamant the troops had not strayed out of the Iraqi waters they were patrolling.
Speaking on Iranian radio armed forces spokesman General Ali Reza Afshar said the captured crew were in "sterling health" and were being interrogated in Tehran. The Foreign Office refused to confirm any of the claims.
Speaking from Berlin, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana added the seizure of the troops must not derail the push to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The group was taken by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval forces off the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway.
The waterway divides Iran from Iraq and is a crucial transport route for valuable oil supplies.
The disputed territory and the lands around it were the focal point of the Iran-Iraq war, which lasted from 1980 to 1988 and claimed the lives of more than one million people.
The seizure of the boarding party carried echoes of an incident in June 2004 when a party of eight Marines and sailors were held for three days after being seized by the Iranians in the Shatt al-Arab. On that occasion the hostages were paraded blindfolded on television.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell linked the capture of the British servicemen with Iran's desire to pursue nuclear development.
He said: "The United Kingdom will not be blackmailed. Iran has a choice: to act responsibly or face greater isolation."
Meanwhile, Mrs Maryam Rajavi, the Iranian Resistance's President-elect, today welcomed the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution.
She described it as "a necessary response to a regime which had breached all international norms and conventions and attempted to obtain nuclear weapons which threatens regional and global peace and security".
Mrs Rajavi said that only a firm policy which would include the imposition of comprehensive oil, arms, technological and diplomatic embargo against the Iranian regime could prevent the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.
She added: "Contrary to its pretences, the mullahs' regime is extremely vulnerable to such sanctions. Feeble and engulfed in internal crises, the mullahs had taken maximum advantage of Western countries' policy of appeasement."
Its the lead headline on Drudge this am.
Hmm let's see Iran claims they confessed being in Iraqi Waters and that they will try them for Espionage. Espionage is one of the worse offenses in the Koran. Seems pretty clear, we'll torture them until they confess to spying on Iran, or just claimed they said they were spying on Iran and then we'll kill them. Iran is so coy that way.
That's the name I couldn't remember. Please see my 16
Do you think they will be?
If I were Tony Blair, I think I'd start sinking Iranian naval vessels until the hostages were released. Start with their new submarines. It would surely keep civilian casualties to a minimum. As I recall, the Brits were working under an American commander at the time of abduction, so either Brit or Yankee subs would do a just fine job of starting things off.
I wondered about that also.
If those aren't pictures of the last set of captured British sailors (and I have no idea if that's the case), then that is quite a scoop, amigo.
Who reported that?
Maybe they're going to put them on trial for espionage, "convict" them, sentence them to death, and then "generously" offer to commute the sentences to life in prison in exchange for money/release of Iranian prisoners. That way, they can look magnanimous without ever having to release the hostages, plus, they can continue to use the hostages to extract further concessions.
You heard it here first.
I am sure Iran is strictly following the guidelines set forth by the Geneva convention.
Updated on the link.
Oh wait, I guess that only applies of you are a terrorist being held by the US or Britain.
outnumbered and outgunned, not much point in fighting.... they had air cover from a lightly armed helicopter.....
uh, no ... they have very little refining capacity.
"Oh wait, I guess that only applies of you are a terrorist being held by the US or Britain."
A pretty stark and glaring contrast, isn't it?
You believe that all women should be compelled to serve in the military? Its one thing to load up the military with women that sign up on their own free will, but to force them to join is rediculous.
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