Iran 'forced' British boats into its waters

[mr2mk1g 10]

This news broke last night. Our Secretary of State for Defence is to make a full statement to the House of Commons about the issue this afternoon.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1251208,00.html

Quote

Iran 'forced' British boats into its waters

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday July 1, 2004
The Guardian

Eight British servicemen seized by Iran last week were forcibly escorted into Iranian territorial waters before they were detained, Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, told MPs last night.

The six marines and two sailors were captured after their patrol boats were said at the time to have strayed by mistake into the Iranian side of the Shatt al-Arab waterway.

The incident led to three days of frantic diplomatic activity and conflicting signals from Tehran, with the Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharrazi, making reassuring comments as Revolutionary Guards paraded the blindfolded men on television.

It was assumed the men had strayed into Iranian waters on their way to Basra to deliver the patrol boats to the new Iraqi river police. But Mr Hoon told MPs in a written statement: "In a recent debriefing the crews have said that they were operating inside the Iraqi border and were forcibly escorted into Iranian territorial waters.

"Our assessment continues and will be greatly assisted by the retrieval of navigational information in the global positioning system equipment carried by the crews."

He added: "We have made it clear that we do not expect a recurrence of this incident."

Mr Hoon also said that the Iranians had not met Tuesday's promised deadline for the return of the three boats, weapons, ammunition, radios and navigational equipment.

One of the men returned home yesterday for medical reasons related to the incident, two returned as their tour of duty ended, and five continue to work in Iraq, Mr Hoon said.

(related to this thread of a week or so ago: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1123701#1123701)