ninme

Times Online - UK hits back over sailors detained by Iran

Responding to a question from David Cameron, the Conservative leader, about the rules of engagement the patrols were operating under, Mr Blair said that the sailors and Marines could have used force in self defence. But he was was quite satisfied that they had taken the right decision in not drawing their arms after being surrounded by six heavily armed Iranian Republic Guard vessels.

“If they had engaged in military combat at the stage, there would undoubtedly have been severe loss of life,” he said.

Well, yeah.

Mr Blair added by the time the crew of HMS Cornwall realised that the 15 had been detained and a Ly\nx helicopter dispatched to find them, they were already in Iranian waters - making intervention that much more dangerous.

The vice-admiral said that far from being inside Iranian waters, the two boats were 1.7 nautical miles - almost two land miles - inside the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which forms the border between Iran and Iraq.

Their exact postition - 29′ 50.36″ N, 048′ 43.08″E - was confirmed by a Global Positioning System (GPS) on one of the small patrol boats that was displayed on the Cornwall. It had also been confirmed on a subsequent fly-past of the site.

I guess it’s easy to do that when you don’t have to worry about “loss of life”.

Mrs Beckett said that the Government had “no doubts about the facts or the legitimacy of our requirements” - that Tehran state where the detainees are being held, grant Britain consular access to them and give details of their release.

But even if the British sailors had strayed into international waters - which they had not - she said that under international law, Iran would not have had the right to detain them. It could at most have asked them to leave those waters immediately.

Thanks, Mrs Beckett, for reminding us all of the international law. Perhaps she may want to tell us how the seizure of the US Embassy or blowing up Jewish centers in Argentina fit into that.

Meanwhile,

In apparent response, Iran said that Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only female detainee, would soon be released. “Today or tomorrow, the lady will be released,” Manouchehr, the Foreign Minister, said on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Riyadh.

Taking the sex out of the dossier, eh? Whatever will the press do now.

Update:

Bubblehead - Brits Release Their Evidence

The British government apparently waited this long to provide the information so as not to “embarrass” the Iranian government without giving them a chance to de-escalate first. The only apparent result of this patience from the UK has been for U.S. conspiracy theorists to decide that it took this long for the Brits to forge the evidence.

Gee, that’s a surprise.

And have you noticed that we haven’t seen the usual “progressive” suspects wondering why these particular prisoners haven’t been made available for visits by the Red Cross?

Well done, all.

I have the same feeling now I had back during the Israeli/Hezbollah thing. Sinking.