Iran broadcast video on Friday of a captured British sailor who said he and 14 colleagues had entered Iranian waters illegally, ramping up tension over the week-long crisis.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed disgust at the broadcasting of footage of three of the captives and said Iran risked further isolation unless it released them — but London said Tehran showed no sign of seeking a way out of the crisis.
”We trespassed without permission,” said the sailor, who gave his name as Nathan Thomas Summers and said they were being treated well. ”I would like to apologise for entering your waters without any permission … I deeply apologise.”
Iran seized 15 British sailors and marines in the northern Gulf last Friday when they were on a United Nations mission. Tehran says they had strayed into Iranian waters but Britain insists they were well within Iraqi territory.
The crisis, at a time of heightened Middle East tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, has helped pushed oil prices to six-month highs over concerns an escalation might curb crucial oil exports from the region.
The video showed two men in khaki uniforms and a woman in blue fatigues and a headscarf talking calmly and smiling in a room with a floral wallpaper background.
Blair criticised the video broadcast but urged patience in dealing with Iran, and said London would consult its key allies over the weekend.
”I really don’t know why the Iranian regime keeps doing this. All it does is enhance peoples’ disgust at captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way,” he said.
”What the Iranians have to realise is that if they continue in this way they will face increasing isolation.”
The video release came as Britain said it was considering a note from Tehran that appeared to resemble a statement used to resolve a similar stand-off in 2004 when Iran seized eight British service officers and held them for three days.
Complicated stand-off
However, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said after the video was shown that there was nothing in the note from Iran to suggest Tehran was looking for a way out.
The letter said Iran respected the rules and principles of international law concerning the territorial integrity of states and that Britain must accept its responsibility for the consequences of any border violation.
The letter did not appear to demand an apology from Britain as several Iranian officials had previously called for.
Analysts said efforts to resolve the stand-off were complicated by Iran’s political structure.
”The Iranian Foreign Ministry is not in charge here,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, senior fellow for non-proliferation at the Institute for Strategic Studies.
”They’re having to work out a face-saving diplomatic solution, but I don’t think the Revolutionary Guards want a diplomatic solution. So it’s going to be hard to choreograph something when you have internal friction.”
The hard-line Revolutionary Guards are the ideological wing of Iran’s armed forces with a separate command structure.
London has been pushing for international condemnation of the sailors’ seizure but failed to get the UN Security Council to pass a strongly worded draft statement. Instead, it expressed ”grave concern” about the issue.
Britain froze all diplomatic business with Iran on Wednesday, except for dealings over the sailors, and hoped its European Union partners would adopt similar measures.
EU foreign ministers voiced solidarity at a summit in Germany but were reluctant as a bloc to freeze business with Tehran over the row.
Friday’s video was the second Iran has shown. It has also released two letters purported to have been written by the only woman captured, Faye Turney. In one letter, she called for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. — Reuters