Global Positioning System coordinates of two British boats seized with 15 sailors were changed by Iran to make it appear they were in Iranian waters, Britain’s United Nations envoy said on Thursday.
“It was only when we point out that the detention [of the 15 British sailors and marines] was inappropriate and in our view unlawful that the coordinates were then changed by the Iranian government to be coordinates within Iranian waters,” British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said.
He told reporters that he would be pressing the UN Security Council to adopt later in the day a “press statement which will make clear the support of the council for the release of the people who in the view of British government have been wrongfully detained”.
He expressed the hope that the 15 Britons, including a woman sailor, would be released “immediately.”
“Our position has been consistent for six days. We want these guys all released immediately. We think the detention was inappropriate and I hope I can get the Security Council to rally to that simple proposition,” the British envoy said.
The proposed British-drafted statement would have the Security Council “deplore the continuing detention by the government of Iran of 15 UK naval personnel” and back “calls for [their] immediate release”.
It would note that “the UK personnel were operating in Iraqi waters as part of the multinational force under a mandate from the Security Council under resolution 1723 [2006] and at the request of the government of Iraq.”
The 15 Britons were captured on Friday in the northern Gulf in what Iran insists were its territorial waters but Britain says they were picked up while on a routine patrol in Iraqi waters.
On Thursday, Iran said the 15 British sailors had entered its waters at six different points before they were arrested, according to the official IRNA news agency reported. — AFP