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Britain refuses to apologise
29/03/2007 13:04 - (SA)
Riyadh - Britain on Thursday rejected a demand by Iran's foreign minister that it admit its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture by the Mideast nation.
Since the crew's detention last week, Britain has insisted they were in Iraqi waters.
A Foreign Office official in London, pointed to the satellite positioning co-ordinates released by the defence ministry on Wednesday to show the British sailors were in Iraqi waters when the Iranian navy seized them.
The demand by Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki for the British admission came on a day of escalating tensions, highlighted by an Iranian video of the detained Britons that showed the only woman captive saying her group had "trespassed" in Iranian waters.
Britain angrily denounced Wednesday's video as unacceptable and froze most dealings with the Mideast nation.
Female sailor to be released?
In an interview, Mottaki also backed off a prediction that the female sailor, Faye Turney, could be freed on Wednesday or Thursday, but said Tehran agreed to allow British officials to meet with the detainees.
He said that Iran will look into releasing Turney "as soon as possible".
Mottaki said that if the alleged entry into Iranian waters was a mistake "this can be solved. But they have to show that it was a mistake. That will help us to end this issue".
"Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem," he said late on Wednesday night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he was attending an Arab summit.
The British military released a GPS readout on Wednesday that it said proved the Royal Navy personnel were seized 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters. But in the interview, Mottaki said Iran had GPS devices from the seized British boats that showed they were in Iranian territory.
Video footage
Earlier on Wednesday, a brief video of the captured Britons was shown on Iran's Arabic language satellite television station, Al-Alam.
One segment showed sailors and marines sitting in an Iranian boat in open waters immediately after their capture.
The video also displayed what appeared to be a handwritten letter from Turney, 26, to her family.
"I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologise for us entering their waters," it said. The letter also asks Turney's parents in Britain to look after her 3-year-old daughter, Molly, and her husband, Adam.
Turney was the only detainee to be shown speaking, giving her name and saying she had been in the navy for nine years.
"Obviously we trespassed into their waters," Turney said at one point, her voice audible under a simultaneous Arabic translation.
"They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested. There was no harm, no aggression."
After the footage was aired, foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said she was "very concerned about these pictures and any indication of pressure on, or coercion of, our personnel. ... I am particularly disappointed that a private letter has been used in a way which can only add to the distress of the families".
- AP
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