Any confession under duress is null and void in the first place and irrelevant in this case. Iran is looking to trigger its own destruction in the vain hopes that some mystical mahdi will come to its rescue. Bruce http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879162063 <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879162063&pagename=JPost%2FJ PArticle%2FShowFull> &pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP TEHERAN, Iran An Iranian military official said Saturday afternoon that the 15 detained British sailors "confessed" to illegally entering Iranian waters. The sailors, taken at gunpoint Friday by Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Al Quds soldiers were captured intentionally and are to be used as bargaining chips to be used for the release of five Iranians who were arrested at the Iranian consul in Irbil, Iraq by US troops, an Iranian official told the daily paper Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday. In addition, a senior Iranian military official said Saturday that the decision to capture the soldiers was made during a March 18 emergency meeting of the High Council for Security following a report by the Al-Quds contingent commander, Kassem Suleimani, to the Iranian chief of the armed forces, Maj.Gen. Hassan Firouz Abadi. In the report, according to Asharq al-Awsat, Suleimani warned Abadi that Al Quds and Revolutionary Guards' operations had become transparent to US and British intelligence following the arrest of a senior Al Quds officer and four of his deputies in Irbil. According to the official, Iran was worried that its detained people would leak sensitive intelligence information. Iran's semi-official news agency, Fars, reported that the 15 Britons have been transferred to the capital Teheran "to explain their aggressive action." There was no immediate official confirmation of the move. The agency said the 15 included "some women." In Britain, officials told the Press Association news agency that at least one woman was among the group. Navigational equipment on the seized British boats "show that they (sailors) were aware that they were operating in Iranian waters and Iranian border gurads fulfilled their responsibility," Fars quoted an unidentified official as saying. Meanwhile, officials from Western countries expressed concern Saturday that Iran would engage in similar acts in the future in order to discourage the United Nation's Security Council from imposing further sanctions, reported Army Radio. Iran had maintained Friday that the British sailors had entered Iranian territorial waters illegally; the United States Naval Forces Central Command (US Fifth Fleet) issued the following statement regarding the incident: "At approximately 10:30 a.m. Iraqi time March 23, 15 British naval personnel, engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters in support of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723 and the government of Iraq, were seized by Iranian naval vessels. The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they andtheir two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters. The British government is pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the British Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador was summoned to the British Foreign Office. The British Government is demanding the immediate, unconditional and safe return of their people and equipment. Royal Navy forces operate as part of Combined Task Force 158. CTF 158's mission is to maintain security and stability in Iraqi territorial waters and to protect the Iraqi oil terminals, under the UN mandate set out in the Security Council Resolutions on Iraq. CTF 158 is currently commanded by Royal Navy Commodore Nick Lambert and operates as one of three coalition task forces in the Combined Maritime Forces under the leadership of Commander, US Naval Forces Central Command/US Fifth Fleet, Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff," the statement concluded. Iranian state television said, however, that this was "not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran's territorial waters," the state TV quoted a foreign ministry official as saying. He was not identified by name. Earlier, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, to the Foreign Office for a meeting, which a department spokesman described as "brisk but cordial." During the meeting, Sir Peter Ricketts, the senior civil servant in the department, demanded "the safe return of our personnel and equipment," the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity under department rules. Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett demanded Teheran fully explain the detention, saying in a statement after Movahedian's summons that he "was left in no doubt that we want them back." Iran later claimed that the British soldiers and marines have been "detained by Iran's border authorities for further investigation ... of the blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters," the official also said. Iran demanded an immediate explanation from London and "asked that this not happen again," the television said. The foreign ministry conveyed Iran's "strong protest" to the diplomat, who was said to be the British charge d'affaires in the absence of a London ambassador to Teheran. The diplomat was also asked to "provide answer as soon as possible" from London. Analysis: Who knows who the waters belong to? By ASSOCIATED PRESS AMMAN, Jordan Talkbacks for this article: 1 The waters where Iranian navy forces seized 15 British sailors and marines are near an area long contested by Iran and Iraq, just outside the mouth of a muddy, 200 kilometer (125-mile)-long channel that separates the Arab and Persian worlds. The neighbors don't even agree what to call it. For the Iranians, it is Arvandrud, or Arvand River. To the Iraqis, it is the Shatt al-Arab, or Arab coastline. Whatever the name, the waterway is formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which join at the Iraqi town of Qurnah and flow into the Persian Gulf, providing Iraq's only outlet to the sea. Iranians and Iraqis have been squabbling over the waterway since before the creation of modern Iran and Iraq. In 1639, the Persians and Ottomans signed an agreement dividing the territory, but without a careful land survey. Bickering continued for centuries, with Iraq claiming the entire waterway right up to the Iranian shoreline. In 1975, however, the two countries signed a treaty recognizing the middle of the waterway as the international boundary. Five years later, Saddam Hussein tore up the treaty and invaded Iran, unleashing a devastating eight-year war. Much of the fighting centered around the waterway. When the Iranians captured the Faw Peninsula on the southern end of the channel in 1987, Iraq lost its shipping lanes and had to turn to Kuwait and Jordan for help in exporting its products. A United Nations peacekeeping force was stationed along the Iran-Iraq border after the war ended, from 1988-1991, with naval personnel in the waterway. British forces overran the area in the early days of the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam and quickly reopened the port of Umm Qasr. Virtually all of Iraq's oil is exported through an oil terminal near the mouth of the waterway. In June 2004, six British marines and two sailors were seized by Iran there. They were presented blindfolded on Iranian television and admitted entering Iranian waters illegally, then released unharmed after three days. Today, the UN says it is not involved in any border disputes between the countries. "It is up to each country to decide their borders," said Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman. "The United Nations does not draw borders. What the recognized borders are in that waterway is the decision of Iran and Iraq." But Teheran and the new Iraqi government have never signed a treaty to replace the Shah of Iran's agreement with Saddam, meaning control of the waterway remains a matter of dispute, said Lawrence G. Potter, an associate professor of international affairs at Columbia University. "The problem is that nobody knows where the border is," Potter said. "The British might have thought they were on their side, the Iranians might have thought they were on their side." For the Iranians, who have a much longer coastline, exercising their claims to the area is both emotional and strategic. The Iranian cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr lie along the waterway. Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, said the Iranian interest in defending its claims explains the move against the British. "The only reason they would do what they've done is to show that they feel strongly about those waters," he said. "This is the sort of thing they will want to ratchet down very quickly." Shibley Telhami, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that he doubted that the Iranians would risk harming their relationship with the Iraqi government over the waterways. "There's always been a dispute about where the line is, but it returned to status quo since the end of the war in 1988," said Telhami. "They have a good relationship with the Iraqi government right now, so it would be surprising if they wanted to open border issues with them at this point." With tensions high over Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, and recent US detentions of Iranians in Iraq, Potter said, Iran may have found a way to assert itself internationally without provoking serious repercuss >From Al Jazeera: EU tells Iran free UK troops British and US vessels often operate in the disputed mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway [ EPA] The EU has told Iran to free fifteen British sailors who have been captured and taken to the Iranian capital after allegedly straying into Iranian waters near the Iraqi city of Basra. "We demand the immediate release of the British soldiers," Frank-Walter Steinmeier, foreign minister of Germany which holds the EU presidency, said on Saturday. Steinmeier said the 27 leaders of the EU, gathering in Berlin to celebrate the bloc's 50th anniversary, will issue a joint statement later. Iran's Fars news agency had earlier said the sailors and marines had been taken to Tehran to explain their "aggressive action". The men were detained on Friday during what Britain described as a "routine anti-smuggling operation" in the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iraq and Iran. General Ali Reza Afshar, a senior Iranian military official, told an Iranian news agency on Saturday that the captured Britons had "confessed to illegal entry into Iran's waters." "The said personnel are being interrogated and have confessed to aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran waters," Afshar was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency. 'Brisk' talks In London Rasoul Movahedian, Iran's ambassador to the UK, was summoned for talks with Sir Peter Ricketts, a senior aide to Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary, which were described as "brisk but cordial". Shortly afterwards, Beckett called on Tehran to fully explain the detentions, saying that Movahedian "was left in no doubt that we want them back". British officials declined to confirm whether Movahedian had offered any assurances that the personnel would be released. 'Routine boarding' The Britons from the frigate HMS Cornwall, were in two inflatable boats and engaged in a "routine smuggling investigation" when they were seized, the US defence department said. The HMS Cornwall is one of the many British and US warships patrolling Iraqi waters [EPA] The abduction of the British servicemen - including one woman - came as the UN Security Council prepared to vote on new sanctions aimed at forcing Tehran to curb its nuclear programme. In June 2004, six British marines and two navy sailors were detained for three days in Iran after a routine operation. They were paraded blindfold on television and forced to apologise for their "mistake". On that occasion Iran insisted that the boats - which it has not yet returned - were intercepted only after they entered Iranian waters on the Shatt al-Arab that divides Iraq from Iran. Machine guns According to a statement from the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and operates jointly with the British forces off the coast of Iraq, the British sailors had just finished inspecting the merchant ship "when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters". Commander Kevin Aandahl said the British crew members were intercepted by several larger patrol boats operated by Iranian sailors belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, a force that operates separately from the country's regular navy. The Iranian boats normally carry bow-mounted machine guns, while the British boarding party carried only sidearms, Aandahl said. No shots were fired and there appeared to be no physical harm done to any personnel involved or their vessels, Aandahl said. The seizure of the British vessels, a pair of rigid inflatable boats known as RIBs, took place in long-disputed waters just outside of the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, Aandahl said. A 1975 treaty gave the waters to Iraq and US and British ships commonly operate there, but Aandahl said Iran disputes Iraq's jurisdiction over the waters. . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=4015662/grpspId=1705043956/msgId =15544/stime=1174742452/nc1=3848578/nc2=3848567/nc3=3848504> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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