Iran to Free Eight U.K. Servicemen Today

[J-10]

Iran to Free Eight U.K. Servicemen Today, Foreign Minister Says

June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Eight U.K. servicemen who were seized by Iran with their naval vessels on a waterway between Iran and Iraq will be freed today, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said in the capital, Tehran.

The timing of their release wasn't given by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, which carried Kharazi's remarks.

Iranian television late yesterday showed two British officers in the group apologizing for straying into the area by mistake. The men, from the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy, and their three boats were detained on Monday on the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

``Considering statements by British sailors that the boats carrying them mistakenly entered Iran's territorial waters, the armed forces decided to release the boats and their occupants,'' an Iranian military spokesman, General Ali Reza Afshar, was cited by the Associated Press as telling state-run radio today.

Earlier today, IRNA cited Iran's military as saying the release of the men and the vessels would depend on whether an investigation showed they entered Iranian waters inadvertently.

The U.K. yesterday asked Iran to release the vessels and crews as soon as possible and allow diplomats to see the crewmen.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Office in London today wasn't immediately available to comment.

From (http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ak472dyVfpXc&refer=home)

[Zoomie]

Iran minister: Sailors to be freed

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran Wednesday will release eight members of the British military and their boats, after it was proven they mistakenly crossed into Iranian waters, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told Iran's state-run news agency, IRNA.

Britain's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Iran had officially notified London of the imminent release, although the details have not been set.

Three British boats were stopped and the eight British service members -- two sailors and six marines -- were detained Monday.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry said the three boats crossed into Iran's territorial waters in the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

The ministry said the Iranian Navy confiscated weapons and maps along with the ships. The crew members were being interrogated, the ministry said.

The detained servicemen appeared on Iranian television Tuesday night, all of them blindfolded. Another video showed two of the men standing by the waterway, identifying themselves as Thomas Hawkins, a Marine, and Chief Petty Officer Robert Webster of the Royal Navy. In the interview, Hawkins apologizes.

Iranian media Tuesday reported that Tehran might put the eight on trial. But a spokesman for the British Foreign Ministry said that they had not "been told definitively that these people are going to be prosecuted."

"We are in constant contact with the Iranians to get the matter resolved," the spokesman said.

A representative in the British Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke with Kharrazi early Tuesday before reports surfaced that the sailors and marines might be prosecuted.

Kharrazi assured Straw that "he will look into it personally," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

The British Ministry of Defense said the eight personnel, based in southern Iraq, were detained by Iran while delivering a boat from Umm Qasr to Basra.

The team members were traveling in three boats -- two Boston Whalers and one British Army Combat Support Boat, the ministry said in a written statement. The boats were unarmed but the crews were carrying their personal weapons, the statement said.

Iranian media Tuesday reported that the British boats had entered Iran's territorial waters illegally and had gotten too close to an oil jetty near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/23/iran.uk/index.html)

[ZeroPositive]

they were just trying to prove a point, and what an ass of a point... good thing our boys are ok.

[ZeroPositive]

they were just trying to prove a point, and what an ass of a point... good thing our boys are ok.

[Gringo]

I've just heard they're delaying it til tomorrow!


Iranian television has said that a decision to release eight Royal Navy servicemen may not be made until tomorrow.

Television pictures have shown the men blindfolded and marching with their hands on the heads.

The diplomatic row continues as according to state-run TV reports, the delay is because a British diplomatic delegation will not reach the area until later.

And the boats and equipment belonging to the eight will remain in Iranian navy custody, it said.

Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was quoted as saying: "The crew of the British vessels will be freed today."

Downing Street later announced that the Government had received confirmation of their imminent release.

Meanwhile, a diplomat has confirmed his party has arrived in Ahvaz, Khuzestan, in southwest Iran, from the capital Tehran for the handover of the men who were seized after allegedly entering Iranian territorial waters.

The crisis over their detention escalated when state-run television broadcast film of the men sitting blindfolded and apparently "confessing" to entering Iranian territory.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the Government was "extremely concerned" about the development and would be raising the matter with the Iranians "at the appropriate level".

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw intervened personally with Mr Kharrazi, to appeal for the men's release while the Iranian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Office for an explanation.

[usa320]

Perhaps the Brits did the same thing Ronald Reagan did...told em to give us our boys back or be in for the ****storm of the century...

[W(M)D]

Sadly not:-

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040623/140/ewikj.html

[-=P=-]

@usa320

The world isnt that easy, nor was ;)

[king_nothing100]

The nerve of them wanting to keep our stuff, well I suppose those 8 guys will have to wait 4 - 6 months for the MoD to find them some replacement gear. :bash:

[Gringo]

The nerve of them wanting to keep our stuff, well I suppose those 8 guys will have to wait 4 - 6 months for the MoD to find them some replacement gear. :bash:

Iran shouldn't keep the kit. Because that's stealing!

[2Sheds_Jackson]

Maybe they'll convert the boats into spare parts for their F-14s.

[Aussie E]

Sadly it looks like there are not going to be released right away.
:( from www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Iran postpones sailor talks
From correspondents in Tehran
June 24, 2004
TALKS on the release of eight British sailors have been postponed until tomorrow, Iranian state television reported today, contradicting earlier reports that they had already been freed.

There was no immediate clarification. Hours earlier an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman had told The Associated Press the eight sailors had been released.

The British sailors were detained Monday for illegally entering Iranian waters as they were travelling in three boats on Shatt al-Arab waterway that runs along the Iran-Iraq border.

Iran's Arabic-language TV channel Al-Alam broadcast an 'urgent' caption on its screen at 4.40pm GMT (2.40am AEST) reading: "The second round of talks on the British detainees is postponed until tomorrow, Thursday" June 24, according to a translation provided by the British Broadcasting Corp.

The station had earlier reported the sailors' release could be delayed to tomorrow.

[J-10]

U.K. Foreign Office Says 8 Crewmen in Iran in British Custody
June 24 (Bloomberg) -- The eight U.K. servicemen who were seized by Iran with their naval vessels on a waterway between Iran and Iraq have been released to British custody, a spokesman for the U.K. Foreign Office said.

The members of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines and U.K. officials are on a plane flying from the southwest of Iran to the capital, Tehran, the Foreign Office said.

The Britons were seized Monday on the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which has long been a source of conflict between Iran and Iraq and was a cause of the 1980-88 war between the two neighbors. Iranian television late yesterday showed two British officers in the group apologizing for straying into the area by mistake.

bloomberg (http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=adu2s8rZmTvw&refer=home)

[Gringo]

And their gear?

Under discussion.

[Pille1234]

And their gear?
I'm sure the Iranian Dschihad army is happy about 3 new boats and 8 Mag-Lites :lol:

[Yes Man]

I think people on this forum are just gear/kit sluts, I really cant see it being a big deal who gets to keep what.

[Gringo]

What would they do with it tho? such as the SA80s? I mean I would understand if I took 8 RN personel hostage I would keep their gear (more so for the reason they would probably shoot me straight away) but why would Iran want everything? Its not like there gonna use them for everyday purpose. Maybe the boats but i dont see about most of the other stuff.

They weren't taken hostage.

I reckon they want to keep the equipment as trophies.

Iran is our allie

[2RHPZ]

A rumour? Probably it is, anyway ...


Iranian Source: British Sailors Apprehended To Swap For 40 Iranian Volunteers for Suicide Missions Captured in Iraq

The real reason why the Iranians seized the British ships? According to London's Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, it was all an ingenious plan. From MEMRI (with thanks to Romy):

"A source close to the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat of the real reasons and factors in the apprehension of the three British Navy vessels and the arrest of the sailors by Iranian Coast Guard patrol forces on Monday [June 21, 2004]. He indicated that the British Army command in Iraq had understood the message sent them by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards command by their capture of the ships."

'Detention of 40 Volunteers for Suicide Operations Was Great Concern to the Revolutionary Guards'

"According to the source, the content of the message was very simple: 'Release our comrades, whom you are holding, and we will release your soldiers.' The source clarified that the detention of 40 volunteers for suicide operations by the Ukrainian forces acting in Iraq was of great concern to the Revolutionary Guards command, because they [the 40] constituted the first group of volunteers participating in the Organization for the Commemoration of the Shahids, which was established recently by Revolutionary Guards Commander Col. Dhu al-Qadr.

"Al-Sharq Al-Awsat was informed that one of the senior leaders of the Revolutionary Guards, who had formerly held the post of head of the Committee for Iran-Ukraine Military Cooperation, had gone to Kiev for talks regarding the Iranian detainees. However, it turned out that the Ukrainian units had already handed the volunteers for suicide operations over to British forces acting in southern Iraq.

"Despite contacts between the Iranian and British military committees at the borders and daily contact between them in small conflict resolution - [such that] this has become routine since the British forces entered southern Iraq - the British command has so far refused to acknowledge that it is holding 40 Iranian volunteers in one of its detention camps. According to the Iranian source, this caused the Revolutionary Guards leadership to seek a semi-military solution to bring its men back from Iraq."