Iran nabs British sailors in Iraq waters

[Chana3812]

this is it!! this will be the start of war with Iran. Cheney smiles as his plan is put into action

Iran nabs British sailors in Iraq waters

Associated Press
7 minutes ago

LONDON - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said.

Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said.
The British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed their inspection of a merchant ship when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, the ministry said.

"We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and ... the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office," the ministry said.

A Pentagon official said the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation, said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the incident.

He said the confrontation happened as the British contingent was traveling along the boundary of territorial waters between Iran and Iraq. They were detained by the Revolutionary Guard's navy, he said.

A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman declined to be identified because of security concerns.

"Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters."

The Britain government said it had demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."

[werther]

here we go.

[Gold9472]

Remember... Iran said they were going to do this to retaliate against the U.S. for "kidnapping" their people. In other words, the U.S. has instigated this...

[thumper]

this reminds me of the movie tomorrow never dies. we'll see what happens next

[Chana3812]

(IRGC = sounds like they are the CIA of Iran)

Friday, Mar. 23, 2007
Why Iran Seized the British Marines

By Howard Chua-Eoan/New York


The most ominous detail about Iran's seizure of 15 British Royal Marines in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway on Friday morning is that the servicemen were reportedly taken into custody by the navy of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The IRGC is a powerful, separate branch of the Iranian armed forces. Soaked with nationalist ideology, it has grown into a state within a state in Iran, with its own naval, air and ground forces, parallel to official government institutions. The IRGC is directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, the ultimate font of religious and political power in Iran. The IRGC also has its own intelligence arm and commands irregular forces such as the basij — a voluntary paramilitary group affiliated with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — and the Quds force, which has been accused by the U.S. of supplying material to Iraqi insurgents bent on killing American soldiers. The IRGC is also known for its clandestine activities including logistical support for militant organizations like Lebanon's Hizballah, which it helped to set up in the 1980s, and several Shi'a militia groups in Iraq. The IRGC's activities are often a thorn in the side of Iran's Foreign Ministry, which is forced to repair the ruptures in Tehran's diplomatic relations with countries the Guard has inflamed with its self-directed adventures. Nevertheless, it has been one of Iran's main instrument in projecting power and influence over the last few decades.

Because the IRGC's actions are always interwoven with the religious-nationalist ideology of Iran's hardliners, extricating the British may be complicated. The Royal Marines, assigned to HMS Cornwall, had been on an anti-smuggling procedure sanctioned by the U.N. but were apparently taken into custody anyway by Iranian naval vessels in the Shatt-al-Arab, a 120-mile stretch of salt marsh disputed between Iraq and Iran. It is the second such incident. In June 2004, Iran took eight British marines and sailors from their patrol boats, keeping them for three days, saying they had breached the maritme border. While they were held, the servicemen were paraded around blindfolded and forced to apologize on Iranian TV, before being released. At that time, the Iranian presidency was held by Mohammad Khatami, considered a moderate more accommodating to the West. The current administration in Tehran is led by Ahmadinejad whose confrontational stance has been the bane of Washington. (In a recent speech, U.S. Treasury Secretary Stuart Levey charged that the Revolutionary Guard's "control and influence in the Iranian economy is growing exponentially under the regime of Ahmadinejad." He noted the Guard is taking over regular government functions such as management of the Tehran airport and building a new Tehran metro. The growing economic clout may be why IRGC's current commander in chief, Rahim Safavi, is considered a pragmatist in Tehran political circles. However, his public comments hardly reflect that political pragmatism.

This week's Shatt al-Arab incident occurs amid a contretemps over Ahmadinejad's proposed trip to the U.N. Security Council to argue for his country's right to pursue the development of nuclear energy, a goal that has met with international opprobrium. According to CNN, the Iranian president has cancelled his weekend trip because Washington has not issued visas for the crew of his plane. (The U.S. State Department insists that all visa requests were honored.) At the same time, Tehran remains in the middle of a dispute with the United States over the detention in January of six of its officials in the Iraqi city of Erbil, taken from what Iran claims was its consulate there. U.S. military officials in Iraq insist it was not a consulate officially recognized by Iraq and that the six had illegal passports, did not have diplomatic credentials and that one had an official ID card from the Quds force, which is part of the IRGC. The U.S. says the six detainees are being investigated in regard to aiding Iraqi insurgents. Meanwhile, Washington has referred all inquiries in the current Shatt al-Arab incident to the British Ministry of Defense.

As Iran increases the volume of its militancy, the rest of the nations on the gulf have grown more and more nervous. The public speculation about a potential war between the U.S. and Iran have added to that anxiety, as have incidents like the taking of the British marines and an earlier event in March when the Saudi Arabian navy engaged an Iranian submarine. No shots were fired but the Saudis found the sub near the Saudi city of Jubail, a coastal industrial center that is the site of major Saudi petrochemical and oil installations, as well as the location of the King Abdul Aziz naval base. The Saudis minimized the incident, accepting the Iranian explanatin that the sub's closeness to Jubail was a mistake. The Saudis also did not want to further stress relations between Riyadh and Tehran. But an Arab surce in the gulf believes that the incident may have been an Iranian political message to the U.S. and the world — a reminder that Iran has assets in the gulf to threaten American and its allies there. Reported by Scott Macleod/Cairo, Jumana Farouky/London, Brian Bennett/Baghdad and Elaine Shannon/Washington http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1602389,00.html

[Gold9472]

Iran says Britons confessed to territory violation

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070324/...ran_britain_dc

By Fredrik Dahl 1 hour, 39 minutes ago

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's military said on Saturday British naval personnel seized in the Gulf confessed to entering Iranian waters illegally, but Britain maintained they were detained inside Iraqi territory and demanded their release.

Iranian forces captured 15 British sailors and marines on Friday at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which marks the southern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran. It sparked a diplomatic crisis at a time of increased tension over Tehran's nuclear standoff with the United States and other major powers.

The semi-official Fars news agency said they had been transferred to Tehran to explain their "aggressive action," but this could not be confirmed. Fars also said the group included some women.

"These people are under investigation and have confessed they have violated the waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the ISNA news agency quoted a military official as saying.

The official, Deputy Commander Alireza Afshar, told state radio the Britons were in good health. "The investigation is going on and they are healthy and there is no problem."

Iranian Arabic-language television station al-Alam later quoted him as saying the "confessions" would be made public soon without specifying how.

Afshar said they were detained on Friday by naval units of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideologically-driven wing of Iran's armed forces which has a separate command structure from the regular military.

Britain has not released the identities of the personnel.

"We still maintain they were in Iraqi waters when they were picked up," a British diplomat in Tehran said, adding he had no official information they had been moved to the capital.

He said the British ambassador was expected to meet Iranian Foreign Ministry officials on Sunday and would press for their release as well access to them. "We would like to see them as soon as possible," the diplomat said.

ENVOYS SUMMONED
Britain said two boatloads of Royal Navy sailors and marines had searched a merchant vessel on a U.N. approved mission in Iraqi waters when Iranian gunboats encircled and captured them.

An Iraqi fisherman who said he saw Iranian forces detain them, said on Saturday the ship British forces were searching was anchored in Iraqi waters.

The incident sent oil prices up more than one percent to a three-month high on Friday. It took place a day after Iran launched a week of naval war games along its coast, including the Gulf's northern reaches which give access to the oil output of Iraq, Iran and Kuwait.

It also came ahead of Saturday's expected U.N. Security Council vote to impose new arms and financial sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, which the West suspects is designed to make atom bombs.

Tehran denies the charge, saying it is only aimed at generating electricity and save its oil and gas for export.

The package of sanctions targets Iran's arms exports, its state-owned Bank Sepah and the Revolutionary Guards.

In London, Britain held an hour-long meeting with Iran's ambassador to demand the immediate release of the naval personnel, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, in the second such meeting in London since Friday's incident.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards captured eight British servicemen in similar circumstances in 2004 and released them unharmed after three nights. Iran said they had crossed into its waters, which Britain disputed.

[PhilosophyGenius]

It'll be intersting to see if people who attacked anyone who doubted KSM's confessions start saying that the British sailers were coerced by the Iranians.

That is all.

[Gold9472]

US troops 'would have fought Iranian captors'

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...cle2393337.ece

(Gold9472: And I have no doubt that the international incident that probably would have sparked WWIII almost immediately, would have made Dick a happy man.)

By Terri Judd in Bahrain
Published:^26 March 2007

A senior American commander in the Gulf has said his men would have fired on the Iranian Republican Guard rather than let themselves be taken hostage.

In a dramatic illustration of the different postures adopted by British and US forces working together in Iraq, Lt-Cdr Erik Horner - who has been working alongside the task force to which the 15 captured Britons belonged - said he was "surprised" the British marines and sailors had not been more aggressive.

Asked by The Independent whether the men under his command would have fired on the Iranians, he said: "Agreed. Yes. I don't want to second-guess the British after the fact but our rules of engagement allow a little more latitude. Our boarding team's training is a little bit more towards self-preservation."

The executive officer - second-in-command on USS Underwood, the frigate working in the British-controlled task force with HMS Cornwall - said: "The unique US Navy rules of engagement say we not only have a right to self-defence but also an obligation to self-defence. They [the British] had every right in my mind and every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken. Our reaction was, 'Why didn't your guys defend themselves?'"

His comments came as it was reported British intelligence had been warned by the CIA that Iran would seek revenge for the detention of five suspected Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq two months ago but refused to raise threat levels in line with their US counterparts. The capture of the eight sailors and seven marines - including one young mother - will undoubtedly renew accusations that Britain's determination to maintain a friendly face in the region has left its troops frequently under protected.

Vastly outnumbered and out-gunned, the Royal Navy team from HMS Cornwall were seized on Friday after completing a UN-authorised inspection of a merchant dhow in what they insist were clearly Iraqi waters. The Iranian Republican Guard Corps Navy appeared in half a dozen attack speedboats mounted with machine guns..

Yesterday, the former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West, said British rules of engagement were "very much de-escalatory, because we don't want wars starting ... Rather than roaring into action and sinking everything in sight we try to step back and that, of course, is why our chaps were, in effect, able to be captured and taken away."

Three days after the team were taken hostage, Tony Blair publicly spoke about the diplomatic crisis for the first time. "I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," he said

"We have certainly sent the message back to them very clearly indeed. They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong," he added, speaking from Berlin.

In a telephone conversation with the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki last night the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett "expressed concern regarding the detention of the British soldiers". An Iranian official later confirmed that Iran may give consular access to the British sailors once an investigation into the incident is completed.

Yesterday, the armed forces spokesman General Ali Reza Afshar said the crew were in "sterling health" and were being interrogated in Tehran, where the Iranians claim they have "confessed" to straying into Iranian waters.

The Foreign Office minister, Lord Triesman, held "frank" discussions with the Iranian ambassador yesterday .

[beltman713]

I'm sure the British are liking this.

[Gold9472]

Blair condemns Iran's detention of sailors

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Blair_c..._03252007.html

Published: Sunday March 25, 2007

Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday called Iran's seizure of 15 British naval personnel "unjustified and wrong" as international pressure grew on Iran over the new diplomatic crisis.

British authorities said they did not know where the personnel, who were seized on Friday, were being held but Iran said the 14 men and one woman were all well.

"The quicker it is resolved, the easier it is for all. But it is quite unjustified and wrong," Blair told reporters on the sidelines of EU 50th anniversary celebrations in Berlin.

"They were in Iraqi water, it is not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters," he said in his first public comments since the detentions on Friday.

The eight British Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines, all based on the British warship HMS Cornwall, were seized in the Gulf waterway that divides Iraq and Iran.

Britain says the group was conducting "routine" anti-smuggling operations, but Iran said Saturday the group had admitted to illegally entering Iranian waters.

British press reports have speculated that the naval personnel could be used as bargaining chips in the mounting war of words between Tehran and the West or traded for Iranians captured in Iraq earlier this year.

The Iranian action has added to tensions caused by fresh United Nations sanctions ordered Saturday over Iran's nuclear programme.

But EU foreign policy Javier Solana, offering to raise the matter with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, said the group's seizure was not linked to Iran's atomic programme.

"This issue must be kept separate from the nuclear negotiations," he said.

Blair said he hoped the solution would come in "an as easy and diplomatic way as possible," adding: "I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us."

French President Jacques Chirac said Britain had the "complete solidarity" of all EU leaders over the missing sailors.

"It seems clear that the soldiers were not in the Iranian zone at the time (of their capture)," Chirac told reporters in Berlin.

The German presidency of the EU issued a statement on Saturday calling for the immediate release of the Britons.

Britain's ambassador to Tehran, Geoffrey Adams, met senior officials at the Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday.

He asked to be told the whereabouts of the group, sought reassurances about their health and urged their release but got no immediate response, a foreign ministry spokesman in London told AFP.

Lord David Triesman, a junior Foreign Office minister, said in an interview with Sky News television: "We don't know where they are. We wish we did. We are asking whether they are being moved around inside Iran."

Iran's foreign ministry did not say where the Britons are being held.

But it released a statement saying: "The British sailors are in good health and the procedure for studying their case continues," despite the current Iranian New Year holidays.

The Sunday Times newspaper quoted an Iraqi military officer in the southern port city of Basra as saying the sailors were not in Iraqi waters when they were detained.

"We were informed by Iraqi fishermen that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control," said Brigadier General Hakim Jassim, who the paper said was "in nominal charge of territorial waters".

"We don't know why they were there," he said.

But Triesman again denied that the group had deliberately entered Iranian territory, telling Sky News: "There's no reason for them to do so."

He also said London was "confident" satellite tracking records would prove them right.

Iran's ambassador to London has twice been summoned to the Foreign Office. On Friday he met a senior civil servant and Triesman on Saturday.

Triesman said Britain wanted the Iranians to reassure the group's families that they were in good health and unharmed.

The group's seizure came three years after eight British Royal Navy personnel training their Iraqi counterparts on the nearby Shatt al-Arab waterway were detained for three days by Iran.

They were blindfolded, paraded on Iranian television and apologised for their actions -- although Britain denied illegal encroachment -- before being released.