Iran: detained Britons "illegally" entered Iranian waters

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 22:52:21

Iran has summoned the British envoy to its foreign ministry over illegal entry into Iranian waters of the Royal Navy marines.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement aired on Friday on the state-run television, saying "British charge d'affaires Kate Smith was summoned to the foreign ministry to receive a firm protest from Iran against the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters."

"This makes a number of times that British sailors have illegally entered Iranian territorial waters at Arvand Rud," the statement read, adding, "They were arrested by border guards for investigation and questioning."

Arvand Rud is the Iranian name for the Shatt al-Arab waterway that separates Iran from neighboring Iraq.

Meanwhile, an Iranian foreign ministry official told AP the 15 seized British soldiers and marines have been "detained by Iran's border authorities for further investigation... of the blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters."

A U.S. Navy spokesman said Friday that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards had radioed a British warship explaining that no harm had come to the 15 British sailors and marines and that they were seized because they were in Iranian waters.

Earlier, the British defense ministry had claimed 15 sailors were seized by Iran in "Iraqi territorial waters" while conducting "routine" anti-smuggling operations.

Iran's IRINN Persian-language news network said earlier on Friday that U.S. and British vessels had stopped and investigated a number of Iranian and Iraqi trade ships after illegally entering Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf close to Arvand Rud.

Iranian navy forces rushed to the scene after the trade vessels had sought help from Iranian forces, leading to the detention of British forces.

Unconfirmed sources told IRINN a British Royal Navy was also stopped and transferred to Iranian coastline.

Britain summoned the Iranian Ambassador to London, Rasul Movahedian Attar, to the foreign office shortly after the incident to convey the British government demand for the "immediate release" of the arrested soldiers and marines.

In 2004, eight troops were detained for three days and paraded on Iranian television. Iran said the soldiers aboard their boats were intercepted only after they entered Iranian waters.

The British forces apologized to Iran for illegally entering its waters, claiming they did not know they had left Iraqi waters.