The eight British sailors and marines detained in Iran are expected to be freed on Thursday, the British Foreign Office said after talks on their release were suspended late on Wednesday.
”The Iranians have said the guys are going to be released. It is that given the time there — it is three and a half hours ahead, so it is really late and it is quite a remote location — it is going to happen tomorrow [Thursday] morning,” a Foreign Office spokesperson told Reuters.
The spokesperson said that British diplomats from the embassy in Tehran had now managed to visit the men, who are being held in the town of Bandar Mahshahr.
Kamal Kharrazi, the Iranian foreign minister, was quoted on television as saying: ”It became clear that the detained British men had no ill intention and they will be released.”
Televised pictures showed the men blindfolded and walking in single file with their hands on their heads.
The six marines and two sailors were seized on the Shatt al-Arab waterway on Monday after apparently entering Iranian waters. The southern end of the waterway forms the Iran-Iraq border. The MoD said they were taking boats to Basra for Iraqi river police.
On Tuesday two of the Britons — Sergeant Thomas Harkins of the marines, and Chief Petty Officer Robert Webster — were shown on Iranian television apologising for mistakenly entering Iran’s territorial waters. – Guardian Unlimited Â