2007 Iranian seizure of Royal Navy personnel

Iranian military personnel seized 15 Royal Navy personnel during 2007 and held them for 13 days. On 23 March 2007, 15 British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

personnel, from HMS Cornwall

HMS Cornwall (F99)

The sixth HMS Cornwall was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was the first Batch 3 to be built, and the last to decommission...

, searching a merchant vessel were surrounded by the Navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and subsequently detained off the Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

-Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

coast. In the course of events, the British forces claimed that the vessel was in Iraqi waters, but the Iranian side insisted that they were in Iran's territorial waters. The 15 personnel were released on 4 April 2007.

A year later, a British investigation report was released which stated that the area in which the incident took place was not covered by any formal agreement between Iran and Iraq.

Background

The team of eight sailors and seven Royal Marines

Royal Marines

The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

in two rigid-hulled inflatable boat

Rigid-hulled inflatable boat

A rigid-hulled inflatable boat, or rigid-inflatable boat is a light-weight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a solid, shaped hull and flexible tubes at the gunwale. The design is stable and seaworthy...

s from the Type 22 frigate

Type 22 frigate

The Type 22 Broadsword class is a class of frigate built for the British Royal Navy. Fourteen of the class were built in total, with production divided into three batches. With the decommissioning of HMS Cornwall on 30 June 2011, the final Type 22 of the Royal Navy was retired from service...

HMS Cornwall

HMS Cornwall (F99)

The sixth HMS Cornwall was a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She was the first Batch 3 to be built, and the last to decommission...

had been searching a merchant dhow

Dhow

Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...

for smuggled automobiles when they were detained at roughly 10:30 Iraqi time (07:30 GMT

Greenwich Mean Time

Greenwich Mean Time is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. It is arguably the same as Coordinated Universal Time and when this is viewed as a time zone the name Greenwich Mean Time is especially used by bodies connected with the United...

; 11:00 Iranian time) by the crews of two Iranian boats; a further six Iranian boats then assisted in the seizure. The British personnel were subsequently taken to an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran

Tehran

Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...

for questioning. Iranian officials claimed that the British sailors were in Iranian waters. A University of Durham analysis of the initial Iranian identification of the location of the boats showed that the position given was in Iraqi waters. According to the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

, the Iranians allegedly issued a "corrected" location, which placed the boats in Iranian waters.

Information provided by Britain initially consistently placed the boats in Iraqi waters. However, the subsequent report by the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee confirmed that the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

map presented to the worldwide media was "inaccurate" as it presented a boundary line when no maritime boundary

Maritime boundary

Maritime boundary is a conceptual means of division of the water surface of the planet into maritime areas that are defined through surrounding physical geography or by human geography. As such it usually includes areas of exclusive national rights over the mineral and biological resources,...

between the two countries has been agreed upon, and so "The Government was fortunate that it was not in Iran's interests to contest the accuracy of the map.” The Foreign Affairs Committee also criticized the government for failing to contact a key Iranian negotiator in a timely manner. Reports in April 2008 citing documents from the MoD inquiry into the incident state that the British sailors captured by Iran were in disputed waters, that the US-led coalition had drawn a boundary line between Iran and Iraq without informing the Iranians, and that Iranian coastal protection vessels regularly crossed this coalition defined boundary.

The British government stated that the team had been conducting a compliance inspection of a merchant ship under the mandate of United Nations Security Council

United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

Resolution 1723

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723, adopted unanimously on November 28, 2006, after recalling previous resolutions on Iraq, the Council extended the mandate of the multinational force until the end of 2007....

. The merchantman had aroused the suspicion of a Royal Navy helicopter while moving along the Shatt al-Arab waterway. HMS Cornwall was part of the British contribution to multinational forces

Multinational force in Iraq

The Multi-National Force – Iraq was a military command, led by the United States, which was responsible for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Multi-National Force – Iraq replaced the previous force, Combined Joint Task Force 7, on 15 May 2004, and was later itself reorganized into its successor, United...

engaged in the Iraq War.

Intense diplomatic

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

efforts were made to secure the release of the detainees. On 28 March 2007 television channels around the world showed footage released by the Iranian government of some of the 15 British sailors. This included a statement by captured Royal Navy sailor Faye Turney, along with a letter she wrote under compulsion, which apologised for British intrusions into Iranian waters. Over the next two days a further video was shown on Iranian television displaying three of the detained Britons and two further letters, again attributed to Faye Turney, were released, again claiming the British boats were in Iranian waters. Iran stated that an apology from British officials would "facilitate" the release of the personnel.

British personnel involved

The following were the 15 Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

and Royal Marines

Royal Marines

personnel detained on 23 March 2007:

Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

Felix Carman RN
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

(The senior British officer captured)
Captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...

Christopher Air RM
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...
Chief Petty Officer
Chief Petty Officer
A chief petty officer is a senior non-commissioned officer in many navies and coast guards.-Canada:"Chief Petty Officer" refers to two ranks in the Canadian Navy...

Gavin Cavendish
Acting Sergeant
Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

Dean Harris
Leading Seaman
Leading Rating
Leading rating is the most senior of the junior rates in the Royal Navy. It is equal in status to corporal, although for a long time was officially junior to that rank. The rate was introduced under the authority of Admiralty Circular No. 121 of 14 June 1853.Leading ratings are normally addressed...

Christopher Coe
Acting Leading Seaman Faye Turney
Lance Corporal
Lance Corporal
Lance corporal is a military rank, used by many armed forces worldwide, and also by some police forces and other uniformed organizations. It is below the rank of corporal, and is typically the lowest non-commissioned officer, usually equivalent to the NATO Rank Grade OR-3.- Etymology :The presumed...

Mark Banks
Able Seaman
Able Seaman (rank)
In the British Royal Navy in the middle of the 18th century, the term able seaman referred to a seaman with at least two years' experience at sea...

Arthur Batchelor
Able Seaman Andrew Henderson
Able Seaman Simon Massey
Able Seaman Nathan Thomas Summers
Marine Paul Barton
Marine Daniel Masterton
Marine Adam Sperry
Marine Joe Tindell

Release

On 4 April, Iranian President

President of Iran

The President of Iran is the highest popularly elected official in, and the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Iran; although subordinate to the Supreme Leader of Iran, who functions as the country's head of state...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a news conference to announce the release of the personnel as a "gift" to Britain, stating: "On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet

Mawlid

Mawlid or sometimes ميلاد , mīlād is a term used to refer to the observance of the birthday of the Islamic prophet Muhammad which occurs in Rabi' al-awwal,...

, and for the occasion of the passing of Christ

Holy Week

Holy Week in Christianity is the last week of Lent and the week before Easter...

, I say the Islamic Republic

Islamic republic

Islamic republic is the name given to several states in the Muslim world including the Islamic Republics of Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Mauritania. Pakistan adopted the title under the constitution of 1956. Mauritania adopted it on 28 November 1958. Iran adopted it after the 1979 Iranian...

government and the Iranian people — with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial — forgave those 15. This pardon is a gift to the British people." When returned to the UK the group claimed to have been put under "constant psychological pressure" from the Iranian authorities. In addition, British equipment, including secure voice communication kit and navigational hardware, has not been reported as being returned.

The Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

announced on 7 April 2007 the beginning of a "detailed inquiry" into the circumstances leading to the capture of 15 personnel by Iran. The confidential inquiry was headed by Lieutenant General

Lieutenant-General (UK)

Lieutenant-general is a senior rank in the British Army and the Royal Marines, although the highest ranking officer in the Royal Marines at present is major general...

Sir Robert Fulton, the Governor of Gibraltar

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

(and former Commandant General Royal Marines

Commandant General Royal Marines

The Commandant General Royal Marines is the professional head of the Royal Marines. The title has existed since 1945...

). On 22 July 2007, the British House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

Foreign Affairs Committee released a report into the incident, however, Fulton's Navy report had not been released to the parliamentary committee.

Legal treaties in force at site

Both interior and territorial waters

Territorial waters

Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...

are generally defined in respect to the tidal low-water mark by international treaties. The incident took place closer to Iranian than Iraqi land above the high-water mark, but this has no legal significance.

The Algiers Agreement

Algiers Agreement (1975)

The 1975 Algiers Agreement was an agreement between Iran and Iraq to settle their border disputes , and served as basis for the bilateral treaties signed on 13 June and 26 December 1975...

, ratified by both nations in 1976, remains in force. It defined the Iran-Iraq international boundary in the Shatt al-Arab by a series of precisely defined turning points closely approximating the 1975 thalweg

Thalweg

Thalweg in geography and fluvial geomorphology signifies the deepest continuous inline within a valley or watercourse system.-Hydrology:In hydrological and fluvial landforms, the thalweg is a line drawn to join the lowest points along the entire length of a stream bed or valley in its downward...

or deepest channel, ending at point "R". Point "R", at 29°51′16"N 48°44′45"E (WGS84) is about 8.6 nautical miles (16 km) southeast of the tip of Iraq's Al-Faw peninsula

Al-Faw Peninsula

The Faw peninsula is a marshy region adjoining the Persian Gulf in the extreme south-east of Iraq, between and to the south-east of the cities of Basra and Abadan ....

at high tide. Point "R" is where the thalweg in 1975 was adjacent to the furthest point of exposed mud flats at "astronomical lowest low tide." Point "R" thus constitutes the end of the land boundary of the two nations, despite being under water at all but the lowest tides.

According to analysis by the International Boundary Research Unit (IBRU) at the UK's Durham University

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

, the location provided by the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

for the location of the seizure is 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 km) southwest of this Point "R" boundary terminus and 1.6 nautical miles (2.9 km) south of this international boundary line. Thus the university says: "The point lies on the Iraqi side of…the agreed land boundary." This has been challenged by Iran, whose second set of released co-ordinates were inside its waters. But the location provided by the British government is not in disputed territory according to IBRU, which says the boundary is disputed only beyond Point "R" (to the east and southeast). Confirming this, Richard Schofield, an expert in international boundaries at King's College London

King's College London

King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

, stated "Iran and Iraq have never agreed to a boundary of their territorial waters

Territorial waters

Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...

. There is no legal definition of the boundary beyond the Shatt al-Arab."

The Algiers Agreement

Algiers Agreement (1975)

The 1975 Algiers Agreement was an agreement between Iran and Iraq to settle their border disputes , and served as basis for the bilateral treaties signed on 13 June and 26 December 1975...

came into effect after being signed by both states in 1975 and ratified by both states in 1976. Under international law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

, one state cannot unilaterally reject a previously ratified treaty, and the treaty had no clause providing for abrogation by one state only. A joint commission should conduct a survey of the Shatt al Arab at least every 10 years. No such survey appears to have taken place, so there could be a dispute as to whether the boundary follows the line defined in 1975 or the current thalweg of the river. The IBRU contends that "it would need a dramatic reconfiguration of the coastline marked on current charts for the median line to run to the west of the point" at which MoD has stated the incident occurred, and so be in Iranian waters.

A year after the incident a British MoD investigation report was released which stated that the area in which the incident took place was not covered by any internationally agreed delineation. U.S. forces had defined an operational boundary, but that had not been published to Iran, and Iranian forces crossed this operational boundary an average of 12 times per month. Since the 1975 Algiers Agreement the Shatt al-Arab channel had shifted in favour of Iran, and any Iranian notional boundary was not known to the U.S. coalition. While innocent passage is permitted in each others' waters, boarding and compliance inspections in another state's waters would not be lawful.

Operational environment

HMS Cornwall is a Batch 3 Type 22 frigate

Type 22 frigate

, lead ship of the Cornwall class, which then constituted part of the British contribution to Combined Task Force 158

Combined Task Force 158

Combined Task Force Iraqi Maritime or CTF IM is an international naval task group, established as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It consists of naval assets from the United States Navy and Coast Guard, the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Navy, working alongside elements of the Iraqi...

. CTF158 controls Maritime Security Operations in the Northern Persian Gulf and includes Royal Navy, United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, United States Coast Guard

United States Coast Guard

The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

, Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

and Iraqi Navy

Iraqi Navy

The Iraqi Navy is one of the components of the military of Iraq currently being reconstructed by UK-US Coalition forces in Iraq. Its primary responsibilities are the protection of Iraq's coastline and offshore assets...

forces. The Task Force is currently commanded by Commodore Nick Lambert, embarked in HMS Cornwall with a staff from Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces

Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces

Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces or COMUKMARFOR is a senior post in the Royal Navy. The post is the highest sea-going command in the Royal Navy and is part of the Fleet Battle Staff based in Portsmouth, part of Commander-in-Chief Fleet's staff...

.

In a joint Five News

Five News

5 News is the news programme of British broadcaster Channel 5, produced by Sky News. From 1 January 2005, Sky News was awarded the contract to provide the news for Channel 5, replacing ITN, which had provided the channel's news service from the channel's launch in 1997...

and Sky News

Sky News

Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

interview

Interview

An interview is a conversation between two people where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.- Interview as a Method for Qualitative Research:"Definition" -...

, recorded on 13 March but not broadcast until after the servicemen and women had been released, Captain Chris Air acknowledged that he was operating close to the buffer zone between Iranian and Iraqi waters, saying: "It's good to gather intelligence

Intelligence (information gathering)

Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...

on the Iranians" and that one purpose of patrols in the area was to gather intelligence on "any sort of Iranian activity".

On 23 March 2007 the two boats from HMS Cornwall with the boarding team, 14 men and one woman, conducted an unopposed boarding and compliance inspection of a merchant vessel suspected of smuggling

Smuggling

Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...

automobiles. Following the inspection and after disembarking from the merchantman the team was detained by Iranian forces in six boats at around 10:30 Iraqi time (07:30 GMT), and escorted to an Iranian naval facility in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway.

Journalists on HMS Cornwall reported that the British forces had chased and boarded a barge (or dhow) that had offloaded vehicles from the merchant ship. The merchant ship and barges, which had been observed the previous day when a barge was boarded, were suspected of smuggling.

According to Britain, HMS Cornwall could not get closer to the merchant vessel because of shallow water. A Lynx helicopter monitoring the boarding had resumed its reconnaissance of the area, and by the time Cornwall realised what was happening the British team was already being escorted to shore by the Iranian border patrol.

Media reporting indicates that warnings of an increased risk of action by Iran, in response to the detention of Iranian officials in Iraq, had been communicated to the UK by the US Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency

The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

but had not resulted in an increase in the area threat levels.

Rules of engagement

British armed forces are subject to rules of engagement

Rules of engagement

Rules of Engagement refers to those responses that are permitted in the employment of military personnel during operations or in the course of their duties. These rules of engagement are determined by the legal framework within which these duties are being carried out...

which define acceptable limits on freedom of action for commanders. Extant ROE has been described by former First Sea Lord

First Sea Lord

The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...

Admiral Sir Alan West as de-escalatory to avoid provoking an intensification of action.

It was reported that the CTF158, Cdre Lambert, requested advice from the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

but was told to hold fire. British Prime Minister Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

later said the attitude of the British forces had been "entirely sensible"; if they had fired there would "undoubtedly have been severe loss of life".

Official briefings

The United Kingdom

United Kingdom

says the sailors were on a routine patrol of the area which was in accordance with United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

Security Council

United Nations Security Council

Resolution 1723

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723

. The Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

indicated that the sailors had boarded the vessel 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 km) inside Iraqi territorial waters at 29°50.36′N 48°43.08′E. The Ministry of Defence has stated that one of the boats remained data-linked to HMS Cornwall throughout this time and the GPS system showed them to be located well within the Iraqi area, though no direct evidence for this was given. According to British authorities, this position was later confirmed by the Indian flagged merchant vessel, which, the Ministry of Defence indicated, had subsequently dragged east on its anchor to 29°50.174′N 48°43.544′E (as shown in the photograph released by the Ministry).

Senior British military officers stated at a press conference on 29 March that there was no doubt where the dividing line between Iraqi and Iranian waters was, despite historic disputes between Iran and Iraq over these waters. However, this was disputed at the time by Craig Murray

Craig Murray

Craig John Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Rector of the University of Dundee....

, and later the Foreign Affairs Committee report into the incident concluded that "there is evidence to suggest that the map of the Shatt al-Arab waterway provided by the Government was less clear than it ought to have been. The Government was fortunate that it was not in Iran's interests to contest the accuracy of the map."

Communication with the boarding team was lost at 09:10 and HMS
Cornwall's Lynx helicopter returned to the scene immediately, having covered the initial stages of the operation. The pilot and the master of the merchant vessel stated that Iranian vessels surrounded the boarding team and escorted them away. The British boats were seen being taken up the Shatt-al-Arab waterway by Iranian Islamic Republican Guard Navy vessels.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the Iranian government provided two sets of co-ordinates for the incident, the first of which was inside Iraqi waters. The Ministry says that upon challenging the set, a second set of co-ordinates were provided indicating a position within Iranian waters less than a nautical mile (1.8 km) away from the first set.

The British government demanded the return of the personnel. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett

Margaret Beckett

Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...

said, "we sought a full explanation of what happened and left the Iranian authorities in no doubt that we expect immediate and safe return of our service personnel and boats". Prime Minister Tony Blair

Tony Blair

denied the British boats were in Iranian waters and called the detainment "unjustified and wrong".

Press and other coverage

The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

raised concerns about what it termed a hostage crisis with the headline "Hostage fears over troops seized by Iran" on its front page on 24 March. The detainees were also routinely described as "hostage

Hostage

A hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...

s" by other newspapers. The BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

apologised to the anti-war group Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran

Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran is a group of academics, students and professionals of Iranian and non-Iranian backgrounds formed to oppose sanctions on Iran by the United States.-History:...

(CASMII) for having used the words "abucted" and "hostages" in relation to the events. CASMII member Abbas Edalat was not satisfied with the apology, stating "We do not accept that because a story is at an 'early stage' misleading reports are therefore acceptable."

Former Head of the Maritime Section at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO is a British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...

, Craig Murray

Craig Murray

Craig John Murray is a British political activist, former ambassador to Uzbekistan and former Rector of the University of Dundee....

, a vocal critic of the current British government, has written that an agreed Iran/Iraq maritime boundary, as shown on the British government provided map, does not exist. "There is no agreed maritime boundary between Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf. Until the current mad propaganda exercise of the last week, nobody would have found that in the least a controversial statement." Murray noted that the Algiers Agreement

Algiers Agreement (1975)

The 1975 Algiers Agreement was an agreement between Iran and Iraq to settle their border disputes , and served as basis for the bilateral treaties signed on 13 June and 26 December 1975...

required reviews every ten years of the position of the border within the Shatt al-Arab as the thalweg

Thalweg

of the river shifts, but these had not been carried out, making even the internal waters border open to dispute. Murray was concerned that the map, notably unfavourable to Iran, could only harden the Iranian position delaying the return of the captives. He stressed that, equally, Iran could not say definitively that the UK crew had been in its waters.

However, Murray's views appear to conflict with the official position of the Iranian Government: in an interview for the Financial Times on 6 April the Iranian Ambassador in London Rasoul Movahedian

Rasoul Movahedian

Rasoul Movahedian-Attar is an Iranian diplomat, currently Iranian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, appointed 4 July 2006.Movahedian previously served as Ambassador to Prague and Lisbon . He was also Head of the America Department ....

made it clear that there is no disputed border line in the area where the incident took place, it is the coordinates of the RN boats when detained that are the subject of the dispute between the UK and Iranian Governments.

Some sections of the British press reacted angrily to the Iranian television footage of the detainees, particularly the prominence of servicewoman Faye Turney, and that she was seen wearing a head scarf. According to Iranian laws, all females above the age of 13 are required to observe the Islamic dress code of Iran.

Official briefings

Iran's director general for Western European affairs, Ibrahim Rahimpour, said that the British boats had made "illegal entry

Illegal entry

Illegal entry is the act of foreign nationals arriving in or crossing the borders into a country in violation of its immigration law.Migrants from nations that do not have automatic visa agreements, or who would not otherwise qualify for a visa, often cross the borders illegally in some areas like...

" into Iranian territorial waters

Territorial waters

Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most from the baseline of a coastal state...

and that the personnel "were arrested by border guards for investigation and questioning".

Mohammad Ali Hosseini

Mohammad Ali Hosseini

Mohammad Ali Hosseini is the vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran. He is the current spokesman of the Ministry and Vice Minister of parliamentary affairs.-References:...

, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, voiced his country's discontent at what he called "blatant aggression", accusing the United Kingdom of "violating the sovereign boundaries of other states". He further stated that Britain was trying to cover up the incursion.

On 24 March, the Iranian Fars News Agency

Fars News Agency

Fars News Agency is a news agency in Iran. While it describes itself as "Iran's leading independent news agency", news organizations such as CNN and Reuters describe it as a "semi-official" news agency with ties to the government...

said the navigational equipment seized on the British boats shows the sailors were aware that they were operating in Iranian waters. On the same day, General Ali Reza Afshar, a top military official, said the sailors had confessed to illegal entry

Illegal entry

into Iran's waters.

Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki

Manouchehr Mottaki

Manouchehr Mottaki is an Iranian politician and diplomat. He was the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Whilst technically appointed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is considered to be closer to more pragmatic conservative factions and during the 2005 presidential election, he was the campaign...

said on 25 March that they were considering charging the British personnel with illegal entry into Iranian waters.

On 29 March, Iranian navy displayed captured GPS devices, saying that they indicated the boats were 450 metres (495 yd

Yard

A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...

) inside Iranian territorial waters at the time they were seized. It further stated: "After reading the information on their navigation equipment - the GPS seized from them - it was revealed that they had already intruded water borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran [5 times]". The chart that was used in the demonstration is marked at 29°51′9"N 48°45′11"E.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Foreign Affairs (Iran)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an Iranian government ministry. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is the Cabinet member in charge....

, on 29 March British troops in Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

opened fire on the Iranian Consulate at 11:00 a.m. local time. It claimed the troops had besieged the consulate for two hours, but no injuries were reported. This attack has been denied by Britain. Major David Gell, British military spokesman in Basra, said the incident was "geographic coincidence" after a British convoy was fired on and returned fire near the consulate.

On 30 March Iran's ambassador to Russia said, "The legal phase concerning these British soldiers has started and if charges against them are proven, they will be punished". The ambassador did not specify what the legal moves were. The ambassador suggested a diplomatic settlement was still possible "if Britain's government admits its mistake and apologises to Iran for its naval personnel's trespassing of Iranian territorial waters, the issue can be easily settled." He expressed regret that the British government had raised the issue to an international level instead of trying to resolve the problem through diplomatic channels.

On 31 March, the Iranian consulate in Basra

Basra

Basra is the capital of Basra Governorate, in southern Iraq near Kuwait and Iran. It had an estimated population of two million as of 2009...

claimed that British troops were carrying out "provocative acts", reiterating their earlier statement regarding a British attack on the consulate. The consulate said there has been intensive flying of fighter aircraft over the consulate building. Al-Hayat newspaper

Al-Hayat newspaper

Al-Hayat is one of the leading daily pan-Arab newspapers, with a circulation estimated over 200,000. It is the newspaper of record for the Arab diaspora and the preferred venue for liberal intellectuals who wish to express themselves to a large public....

reported that the actions might be a scare tactic to pressure Iran into releasing the detainees.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commented on the seizure for the first time on 31 March by calling Britain "arrogant" for failing to apologise for entering Iranian waters.

In a Press conference on 4 April 2007, President Ahmadinejad gave a history of Iran

Iran

leading to an analysis of the Iranian view of world political asymmetry. He then continued to comment on the bravery and courage of the Iranian coastguard and presented them all with the Medal of Honour. President Ahmadinejad then attacked British forces for sending out a woman with a child at home as part of a military force. He then announced that the sailors would be released as a "gift" to Britain.

Press and other coverage

The Persian Journal reports that the 1975 Algiers agreement that defines the current Iran-Iraq boundary does not delimit the border beyond the shoreline into the territorial seas in the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

, where Iran and Iraq have different approaches to the method that should be used. Iran wishes to divide its maritime boundaries on the basis of the equidistance principle

Equidistance principle

The equidistance principle or principle of equidistance is a legal concept introduced in maritime boundary claims.The phrase denotes a concept of political geography and international law — that a nation's maritime boundaries should conform to a median line equidistant from the shores of...

, whereas Iraq believes the entrance of the Persian Gulf requires special criteria. This incident may have happened in an area that both sides consider as their own territory. Military units may have the right of innocent passage

Innocent passage

Innocent passage is a concept in admiralty law which allows for a vessel to pass through the territorial waters of another state subject to certain restrictions. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines innocent passage as:...

in each other's waters, but this incident involved boarding and compliance inspection and was not simple innocent passage under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...

.

Students from the Basij

Basij

The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer militia established in 1979 by order of the Islamic Revolution's leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The force consists of young Iranians who have volunteered, often in exchange for official benefits...

group, a paramilitary wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution , often called Revolutionary Guards, is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution...

, called for the Britons to be put on trial, while the editor of Iran News, Dr Ali Pahlavan, stated that the Revolutionary Guard

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution , often called Revolutionary Guards, is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution...

felt that the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

needed to be challenged.

On 1 April students from Tehran University protested outside the British embassy in the capital making speeches and throwing firecrackers and rocks into the embassy compound. A BBC correspondent reported they were chanting "death to England" and calling for a trial and apology. The crowd was dispersed by pepper spray

Pepper spray

Pepper spray, also known as OC spray , OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent that is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears...

fired by riot police.

On 2 April, the two captured officers were shown on Iran's Alam-TV, in front of a map of the Persian Gulf area which showed a position for the capture inside Iran's waters. Carman said, "[...] I would like to say to the Iranian people, 'I can understand why you are so angry about our intrusion into your waters'".

On 3 April, Patrick Cockburn

Patrick Cockburn

Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent....

in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

gave new details about a US raid which captured five Iranians in Arbil 10 weeks before this incident, suggesting that it was a serious escalation in the confrontation between the US and Iran, and was the reason behind Iran seizing the British sailors.

Iraqi statements

On 24 March, Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

Hakim Jassim, Iraqi military commander of the country's territorial waters, gave an interview with Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

. He doubted the British claims, saying: "We were informed by Iraqi fishermen after they had returned from sea that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control. We do not know why they were there."

On 25 March, the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, urged Iran to release the detained personnel, in a telephone call to his Iranian counterpart. In a statement released, he said that "according to the information available to the Iraqi authorities those soldiers were detained inside Iraqi waters. They were working with the multi-national forces with the approval of the Iraqi government and according to U.N. Security Council resolutions."

Multinational organisations

European Union — German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...

, who then held the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union
Presidency of the Council of the European Union
The Presidency of the Council of the European Union is the responsibility for the functioning of the Council of the European Union that rotates between the member states of the European Union every six months. The presidency is not a single president but rather the task is undertaken by a national...

expressed its full support of the United Kingdom, saying in a statement that "I would also like to use this opportunity of being in this house to tell you that the EU finds it fully unacceptable that 15 British troops have been captured and detained by Iran," she told the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

in a speech.
United Nations — The Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...

made a statement expressing its members' (the term "members of the Security Council" rather than "the Security Council" is used) "grave concern" at Iran's actions, urged Tehran to allow the UK consular access to its personnel, and encouraged an early resolution including the release of all 15 crew members. Attempts by the British to obtain a stronger statement were defeated by opposition on the Council, led by Russia.

Asia

Japan—Foreign Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)
The of Japan is the Cabinet member responsible for Japanese foreign policy and the chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Since the end of the American occupation of Japan, the position has been one of the most powerful in the Cabinet, as Japan's economic interests have long relied on...

Taro Aso
Taro Aso
was the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan serving from September 2008 to September 2009, and was defeated in the August 2009 election.He has served in the House of Representatives since 1979. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2007, and was Secretary-General of the LDP briefly in 2007 and...

made repeated calls to Iranian officials to free the detained Royal Navy soldiers after he had personally spoken to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
Manouchehr Mottaki
Manouchehr Mottaki is an Iranian politician and diplomat. He was the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Whilst technically appointed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is considered to be closer to more pragmatic conservative factions and during the 2005 presidential election, he was the campaign...

about releasing them unconditionally.

Europe

Norway expressed their full support of the demands made by the European Union for the immediate release of the 15 Royal Navy soldiers, but also hoped that the situation would not escalate. On 30 March, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the foreign ministry of the Kingdom of Norway...

Raymond Johansen said in a statement to NRK that: "It is very important that the conflict between Iran and the European nations does not escalate. We have to find an immediate solution to this problem."
Sweden — Foreign Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Sweden)
The Minister for Foreign Affairs is the foreign minister of Sweden and the head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.The office was instituted in 1809 as a result of the constitutional Instrument of Government promulgated in the same year. Until 1876 the office was called Prime Minister for Foreign...

Carl Bildt
Carl Bildt
, Honorary KCMG is a Swedish politician, diplomat and nobleman. Formerly Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999, Bildt has served as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs since 6 October 2006...

said in a statement that: "It is quite obvious that the Iranians are conducting a kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

, and that cannot be accepted."
Belgium — Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht
Karel De Gucht
Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht is a Belgian politician who has been the European Commissioner for Trade since 2010...

expressed his deep concern on the situation, and stressed the fact that a dialogue needed to be opened not only for this particular issue but for the Iranian nuclear programme
Nuclear program of Iran
The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. The support, encouragement and participation of the United States and Western European governments in Iran's nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution...

as well.

North America

Canada called for the immediate release of the British personnel and has also given support for the UK's version of events and location of the abduction. Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's international relations section of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada....

Peter MacKay
Peter MacKay
Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....

went on to say "This is an unacceptable incident. Iran has no authority to conduct military operations within Iraqi territorial waters. It should also be noted that British forces are operating in Iraq under UN authority and at the invitation of the Government of Iraq." and "The British personnel were engaged in legitimate and routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters in support of the Government of Iraq. Canadian naval ships have conducted the same type of operations in this area under the same mandate."
United States — The White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

said that U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

pledged his support to the British government over the crisis and agreed to help them in any way that he could. Furthermore, on 1 April President Bush at a press conference at Camp David
Camp David
Camp David is the country retreat of the President of the United States and his guests. It is located in low wooded hills about 60 mi north-northwest of Washington, D.C., on the property of Catoctin Mountain Park in unincorporated Frederick County, Maryland, near Thurmont, at an elevation of...

said that "The British hostages issue is a serious issue because the Iranians took these people out of Iraqi water".

The Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

passed a resolution condemning Iran's conduct "in the strongest possible terms" and calling for the "immediate, safe and unconditional release" of the sailors; the House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

did not. The House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a statement demanding the release of the Marines, stating that "The government of Iran has once again ignored international law by seizing sailors in waters outside their jurisdiction"

The Navy

United States Navy

dispatched two Nimitz-class

Nimitz class aircraft carrier

The Nimitz-class supercarriers are a class of ten nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in service with the United States Navy. With an overall length of and full-load displacements of over 100,000 long tons, they are the largest capital ships in the world...

supercarrier

Supercarrier

Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons.Supercarrier is an unofficial descriptive term for the largest type of aircraft carrier, usually displacing over 70,000 long tons.Supercarrier is an unofficial...

s (the USS John C. Stennis and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, with approximately 50 F/A-18 Super Hornet

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet

The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is a twin-engine carrier-based multirole fighter aircraft. The F/A-18E single-seat variant and F/A-18F tandem-seat variant are larger and more advanced derivatives of the F/A-18C and D Hornet. The Super Hornet has an internal 20 mm gun and can carry air-to-air...

fighter jets each) as well as 15 other warships to the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

. The Navy maintained that the battle group was dispatched to the Persian Gulf before Iran detained the British sailors, and that this was not a show of force

Show of force

Show of force is a military term for an operation intended to warn or intimidate an opponent and to showcase one's own capability or will to act if provoked...

in response to Iran.

Oceania

Australia called for the immediate release of the British sailors. Foreign Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia)
In the Government of Australia, the Minister for Foreign Affairs is responsible for overseeing the international diplomacy section of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In common with international practice, the office is often informally referred to as Foreign Minister...

Alexander Downer
Alexander Downer
Alexander John Gosse Downer is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, the longest-serving in Australian history...

made a statement saying Australia was seriously concerned for the British personnel and urged Iran to release them immediately.

Other

The UK-based pan-Arabic
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism is an ideology espousing the unification--or, sometimes, close cooperation and solidarity against perceived enemies of the Arabs--of the countries of the Arab world, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea. It is closely connected to Arab nationalism, which asserts that the Arabs...

newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat quoted an unnamed source whom they identified as "a source close to the command of Quds Force" that said the detention of coalition military personnel had been planned as early as 18 March. The newspaper stated that the Iranians would release the personnel if the U.S. military
Military of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...

released the five liaison office employees they had detained earlier in the year in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, and that this operation had been planned in advance as a tactic to bargain for the release of the detainees.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

sent a written appeal to Iran's top authority, Ali Khamenei, seeking the release of 15 British military personnel who were captured in the Persian Gulf. The Pope, just hours before the group’s release, had asked Khamenei to "do what he could to ensure that the British sailors and marines were reunited with their families in time for Easter". "It would, (the Pope) said, be a significant religious gesture of goodwill from the Iranian people", The Guardian reported.
On 25 March, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

quoted a website, which it said was run by supporters of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that the sailors and marines could be indicted for espionage
Espionage
Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

in an Iranian court
Judicial system of Iran
A nationwide judicial system in Iran was first implemented and established by Abdolhossein Teymourtash under Reza Shah, with further changes during the second Pahlavi era....

. Espionage is punishable by death in Iran. The Sunday Times confirmed the Asharq Alawsat statement on the detainees, quoting an unidentified person that the situation could be resolved through a prisoner swap.

Diplomatic actions

The Iranian ambassador to the UK was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

on 23 March to see Peter Ricketts

Peter Ricketts

Sir Peter Forbes Ricketts, GCMG is a senior British diplomat who currently serves as National Security Adviser to HM Government...

, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office

Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office

This is a list of Permanent Under-Secretaries in the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office since 1790.Not to be confused with Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs...

, was asked to explain the incident and told that Britain required the servicemen to be returned. He was summoned again on 24 March to see Lord Triesman

David Triesman, Baron Triesman

David Maxim Triesman, Baron Triesman is a former Chairman of the Football Association, a British politician, a Labour member of the House of Lords and previously a minister at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills....

, a junior foreign office minister, to reiterate Britain's demand that the personnel be released with their equipment.

On 25 March the British ambassador to Iran went to the Iranian foreign ministry. The Iranians said he had been summoned so they could protest against "the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters". However the British said the meeting was at their request and that they had asked both for the immediate release of the personnel and for consular access to them. Prime Minister Tony Blair said if diplomacy

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

fails he will take other measures to release the British sailors and marines. When asked what other measures he refused to answer directly if military action was a possibility.

Iran's foreign minister stated that Britain must admit to its "mistake" before the issue can be solved.

On 28 March, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated that British servicewoman Faye Turney would be released by 29 March, at the latest. He maintained that the British personnel were illegally operating in Iranian waters, but stated that their presence may have been an honest mistake.

On 29 March the head of Iran's supreme national security council, Ali Larijani, announced a suspension of the release of Faye Turney, stating that the announcement of the release had been met with an "incorrect attitude". Meanwhile, Ban Ki-Moon

Ban Ki-moon

Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...

, Secretary-General of the United Nations, had been meeting with Iranian officials during a summit in Riyadh. A letter supposedly authored by Faye Turney calling for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq was also published by Iran.

On 4 April reports emerged, later confirmed by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Robert Gates

Dr. Robert Michael Gates is a retired civil servant and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Prior to this, Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and under President George H. W....

, that an Iranian representative will meet the five Iranian government employees captured in January in a U.S. raid on an Iranian liaison office in Arbil, although this would not be an official consular visit. The U.S. rejected any suggestion that the British naval personnel would be swapped for the five Iranian officials.

Release

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unexpectedly announced the release of the captives halfway through a long press conference on the afternoon of 4 April 2007. Ahmadinejad reiterated the statement that Iranian waters had been breached, and he praised the border guards who detained the British personnel. Abolqassem Amangah, commander of Iran's southwestern Maritime Border Patrol Guard was awarded the third degree medal

Medal

A medal, or medallion, is generally a circular object that has been sculpted, molded, cast, struck, stamped, or some way rendered with an insignia, portrait, or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific,...

of bravery for stopping the sailors. Ahmadinejad also criticized the British government for sending the mother of a child to the battlefield, and asked the government "not to prosecute them for their confessions." The release was announced after the British government supposedly sent a letter of apology to the Iranian government, accepting the breaching of their border, the illegal insertion of military units in Iran and the promise that Iranian territory would never be violated again. However, the British government denies that such a letter exists, and says that the release was performed without any agreement from both sides. Despite British denial of such a letter, on 3 June 2009, during a televised presidential debate between the sitting president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh is an Iranian reformist politician, artist and architect who served as the seventy-ninth and last Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He was a Reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventually the leader of the opposition in the post-election...

, Ahmadinejad reiterated that his country's decision to release the 15 British sailors was made after having received a letter of apology from the former British prime minister. The following day, Fars News Agency

Fars News Agency

published a copy of a letter claimed to be a British apology.

After the conference, the Britons met Ahmadinejad outside the presidential palace, where they reportedly showed their appreciation for their release. Later Tony Blair

Tony Blair

said he was glad and stated that he "bears Iranian people no ill will." They were released on 5 April 2007. Whilst in Iran one of the sailors stated that when interviewed by British media at home, he would say nothing different than comments he has made in Iran about being well treated by the authorities.
"I would not say anything different to here and I will be completely truthful. I will definitely promote Iran actually; there is a lot of ignorance in the UK about Iran and the people".

The release was presented to suggest that it was an Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

"gift" to the British people. Ahmadinejad is thought to have acted in response to a letter from Pope Benedict XVI who appealed to Iran's Supreme Leader to free the personnel as a "goodwill gesture before Easter". The letter was drawn up in consultation with the British Embassy to the Holy See. However, the captives were not released to British consular officials but placed directly aboard British Airways

British Airways

British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...

flight BA6634 (flown by franchisee British Mediterranean Airways

British Mediterranean Airways

British Mediterranean Airways Limited, trading as BMED, was an airline with operations from London Heathrow Airport in England. It operated scheduled services as a British Airways franchise to 17 destinations in 16 countries throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia from London...

using Airbus A321 G-MEDL), a direct flight to the UK, on the morning of 5 April 2007, landing at about noon local time. They were given gifts of CDs, Persian candies, pistachio

Pistachio

The pistachio, Pistacia vera in the Anacardiaceae family, is a small tree originally from Persia , which now can also be found in regions of Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Sicily and possibly Afghanistan , as well as in the United States,...

nuts, books, vases and handicrafts by the Iranians. After a briefing on board at London Heathrow, the press were allowed a short photographic opportunity, before the personnel were flown directly to Royal Marines Base Chivenor

Royal Marines Base Chivenor

Royal Marines Base Chivenor is a British military base used primarily by the Royal Marines. It is situated on the northern shore of the Taw estuary, adjacent to the South West Coast Path, on the north coast of Devon, England....

in north Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

by two Royal Navy Westland Sea King

Westland Sea King

The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines , British made anti-submarine warfare systems and a...

helicopters for medical checkups, a full debriefing and meeting with their families.

Debriefing

At a news conference on the afternoon of Friday 6 April 2007 some of the British personnel said of their capture that some of the Iranian sailors had become "deliberately aggressive and unstable", rammed their boats and pointed their machine guns at them. The British said they did not resist because they believed they could not win in a fight and that it would have caused "major strategic" consequences. Upon their arrival at an Iranian naval base, the British said they were "blindfolded, stripped of all our kit" and then moved to another room where they were "...subjected to random interrogation. The questions were aggressive and the handling rough, but it was no worse than that". The next morning they were flown to Tehran and subsequently taken to a prison. Here, the British sailors said "the atmosphere changed completely".

According to the captives they were blindfolded, their hands bound, and they were forced up against the wall." they said they faced "constant psychological pressure." Later, the British said they had been stripped and dressed in pyjamas. Over the next few nights they said they slept in "stone cells approximately 8 ft (2.4 m) by 6 ft (1.8 m), sleeping on piles of blankets" and kept in "isolation" and "interrogated" most nights. They said they were given two options: to admit they were in Iranian waters and be returned to the UK or face up to "seven years in prison". They claimed to have been "inside internationally-recognised Iraqi territorial waters" some "1.7 nautical miles" from Iranian waters.

They further stated that Faye Turney was at first kept separate from the men and for four days was deceived into believing that the men had been released.

Admiral Jonathon Band

Jonathon Band

Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, GCB, DL, ADC , from 2006 to 2009, was the First Sea Lord of the United Kingdom, the most senior serving officer in the Royal Navy. Before serving as First Sea Lord he was Commander-in-Chief Fleet...

said, "I would not agree at all that it was not our finest hour. I think our people have reacted extremely well in some very difficult circumstances." It was also stated during the conference that although all British armed forces personnel receive training in what to do in the event of being captured, only that for pilots and special forces personnel specifically included training in hostage scenarios, and that there was no equivalent of the US "Code of the U.S. Fighting Force".

Iranian response

The Iranian reaction to the 6 April press conference was to dismiss the entire thing as propaganda and to claim that the former captives had been dictated to by the British authorities into defaming Iran to hide the embarrassment of having violated Iranian waters.
The handling of the captives return from captivity, i.e. the helicopter trip away from the media at Heathrow, the overnight delay in holding the press conference and the fact that not all the captives were available at the press conference, has been used by the Iranians to sow doubt as to the veracity of the captives' account of the affair.
On 9 April, in attempts to further counter the claims made against them, Iran released a new video showing the marines smiling, laughing, playing chess and watching a soccer match while in captivity.

Publishing their stories

On 8 April, the Ministry of Defence announced that the detainees would, exceptionally, be permitted to sell their stories. It was subsequently revealed that the Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral Adrian Johns

Adrian Johns

Vice Admiral Sir Adrian James Johns KCB, CBE, KStJ, ADC is the current Governor of Gibraltar and a former senior officer in the Royal Navy. His most senior naval posting was as Second Sea Lord from 2005 to 2008.-Career:...

made the decision to grant the marines and sailors permission to tell their stories.
This decision has sparked anger and unease within the United Kingdom, with opposition MPs, such as Sir Menzies Campbell

Menzies Campbell

Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...

, expressing their concern. It is believed that Faye Turney sold her story for over £100,000.

On 9 April, the Ministry of Defence decided to ban personnel from selling their stories to the media until a review of the rules governing the issue is completed. Defence Secretary Des Browne

Des Browne

Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 1997 to 2010...

said the review was aimed at making rules consistent across the armed forces. His announcement will not affect any of the 15 service members who already have talked to media, a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

Tony Blair commented on 11 April that he was not made aware of the decision to allow the personnel to sell their stories until after the decision had been taken, and that "with hindsight" it was not a good idea, although he believed the move was made "completely in good faith". Following further pressure on the Government, Prime Minister Tony Blair

Tony Blair

insisted there would be no "witch hunt" for culprits.

Release of kidnapped Iranian diplomat

It remains unclear whether the release of the 15 British naval personnel had any coincidence with the release of a senior Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who was taken hostage during a kidnapping in 2007

Baghdad kidnapping of Iranian diplomat (February 2007)

Gunmen kidnapped Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary of the Iranian embassy, as he drove through Karrada district in central Baghdad, Iraq on 6 February 2007. The gunmen wore uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion uniforms. - a special Iraqi unit under U.S. direction. The U.S. military...

. He was released on Tuesday, 3 April 2007, and walked back into the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, although it is not clear who had abducted him. He was taken captive by a group of men dressed in uniforms of the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion – a special Iraqi unit under U.S. direction. After his release, Sharafi claimed he had been kidnapped and tortured by American troops and agents of an Iraqi organization acting under the supervision of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency

. Signs of torture were reportedly found on Sharafi's body for which he received medical treatment. Iran also allegedly now has access to five Iranian nationals arrested in the US raid on Iranian liaison office in Arbil. An International Committee of the Red Cross

International Committee of the Red Cross

The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...

team also visited the Iranian detainees. The British government however repeatedly stated that it made no deals with the United States or with Iran to secure the release of the detainees, and the timing of these events may be purely coincidental.

Historical context

On 21 June 2004, eight British servicemen were detained for three days, after Iran said they had entered Iranian territorial waters in somewhat similar circumstances. They were released unharmed after the British and Iranian governments agreed there had been a misunderstanding. Their equipment was not returned and a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) was put on display in a museum in Tehran. During their detention, according to former detainee Marine Scott Fallon, he believed that they had endured a mock execution

Mock execution

A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that his execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place. It may be staged for an audience or a subject who is made to believe that he is being led to his own execution...

in which they were marched into the desert and made to stand blindfolded in front of a ditch while he heard their captors cock their weapons. They also appeared blindfolded on Iranian TV, where they were forced to apologise for their "mistake". There were, however, some differences between these two events. In 2004 the Royal Navy boats were operating much closer to the northern coast of the Persian Gulf in the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway which divides southern Iran and Iraq. The weather was bad causing negligible visibility which may have contributed to a potential crossing of the Iranian border by the Royal Navy. After the crew were returned and events analysed the British government affirmed its belief that the personnel were actually still in Iraqi waters, however they consigned the incident to a misunderstanding and requested the return of the equipment. In the 2007 incident the boats were by contrast operating some distance from the Iraqi-Iranian mainland in open water and were (according to the British) 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territory. Visibility conditions were good and the crew had GPS navigational equipment (installed in part due to the 2004 incident).

An Iranian government-run media source, the IRNA, alleges violations of Iranian territory by British armed forces to have occurred several times in recent years.

On 27 January 2007 a British helicopter flew over the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab and violated Iran's airspace. It allegedly left the area after a warning from Iranian coast guard forces. No information about this is available from either the British government or independent media to confirm or deny the accuracy of this account.

On 28 February 2007, three Royal Navy boats allegedly entered the mouth of the Khor Mousa in Iranian territorial waters. No British government or independent media sources have confirmed or denied the accuracy of this account.

Official inquiries

19 June 2007 saw the release of information about two official reports, the confidential Fulton report into the military aspects of the April incident, and the published report by Tony Hall into the media aftermath. In what is seen by some as a whitewash

Whitewash (censorship)

To whitewash is a metaphor meaning to gloss over or cover up vices, crimes or scandals or to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data. It is especially used in the context of corporations, governments or other organizations.- Etymology :Its first...

the reports concluded that although there were "failings" and a "collective failure of judgment" that these "were not the result of a single gross failing or individual human error".

On 22 July 2007 the British House of Commons

British House of Commons

Foreign Affairs Committee released a report into the incident, however Fulton's Navy report had not been released to the parliamentary committee.

In April 2008 redacted documents from the initial MoD inquiry for Chief of the Defence Staff

Chief of the Defence Staff (United Kingdom)

The Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the British Armed Forces, a senior official within the Ministry of Defence, and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister...

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup were released to The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

under Freedom of Information laws

Freedom of Information Act 2000

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in the United Kingdom on a national level...

. The Times stated that the British sailors captured by Iran were "in internationally disputed waters and not in Iraq's maritime territory as Parliament was told", that the US-led coalition had drawn a boundary line between Iran and Iraq without informing the Iranians, that Iranian coastal protection vessels regularly crossed this coalition defined boundary, and that the British were first to raise their weapons in the incident before the Iranian gunboats came alongside.

Incident with Royal Australian Navy

Following the incident, the BBC

BBC

reported that a similar incident had occurred in December 2004, this time with a boarding party of Royal Australian Navy

Royal Australian Navy

(RAN) personnel from the frigate . The sailors had boarded the freighter MV Sham from two RHIBs, which had grounded near the maritime border between Iraq and Iran. As they were leaving, the vessels were approached by an Iranian gunboat. The boarding party climbed back aboard Sham, took up defensive positions, and, according to BBC reporter Frank Gardner, "warned [the Iranians] to back off, using what was said to be 'highly colourful language'." During the next 45 minutes four more gunboats arrived, and the stand-off lasted for four hours before the Australians were evacuated by Adelaides Seahawk helicopter. No shots were fired during the incident, and two of the Australians were later awarded the Distinguished Service Medal

Distinguished Service Medal (Australia)

The Distinguished Service Medal is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the Australian Defence Force for distinguished leadership in action. The DSM was introduced in 1991 and is the second highest distinguished service decoration in the Australian Honours System. Recipients of the...

for their conduct during the stand-off. The Australian Defence Force

Australian Defence Force

The Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy , Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Force and a number of 'tri-service' units...

did not report the incident to the media at the time, stating that at the time, there was no need to highlight it.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Background

British personnel involved

Release

Legal treaties in force at site

Operational environment

Rules of engagement

Official briefings

Press and other coverage

Official briefings

Press and other coverage

Iraqi statements

Multinational organisations

Asia

Europe

North America

Oceania

Other

Diplomatic actions

Release

Debriefing

Iranian response

Publishing their stories

Release of kidnapped Iranian diplomat

Historical context

Official inquiries

Incident with Royal Australian Navy

See also

External links