June 21, 2004

SOMEBODY IS SPOILING FOR A FIGHT

Royal Navy team is seized by Iran (Michael Smith and Behzad Farsian, The Telegraph, June 22nd, 2004)

Iran seized eight Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel in three patrol boats on the Shatt al Arab waterway yesterday, claiming that they had strayed across the border with Iraq.

The boats, which were being delivered to the Iraqi riverine patrol service, were flying the White Ensign. They were travelling up the waterway towards Basra.

Teheran said: "British boats entered territorial waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran and officials of the naval force, in accordance to its laws, seized the boats and arrested the eight crew members aboard.

"Interrogation of those detained will continue until the matter is clarified."

An Iranian Arabic-language television station which broadcasts to the mainly Shia population of southern Iraq said the Royal Navy personnel had "confessed that they have made a mistake".

British sources in Baghdad appeared to confirm that the boats had crossed into Iranian territorial waters in the waterway, which has long been a matter of contention between Iran and Iraq

There was immediate speculation that the arrests were linked to the row over Iran's nuclear programme.

The Iranians were infuriated after Britain helped to draft a highly critical resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, condemning Teheran's failure to co-operate fully with international inspections.

Posted by Peter Burnet at June 21, 2004 10:00 PM
Comments

Nelson weeps.

Posted by: David Cohen at June 21, 2004 10:28 PM

That's embarrasing.

One of the historically great maritime powers should not have to suffer this at the hands of a country whose navy consists of an ocean kayak and a whitewater raft.

Posted by: kevin whited at June 21, 2004 10:34 PM

First, why is this story being buried? I see nothing on CNN, MSNBC, and the BBC homepage has a big feature on their version of America's Most Wanted...

Obviously the mullahs are fairly confident Blair can't do a thing about it. The ultra-pessimistic view is that if he does show spine, we'll see the first Iranian nuclear test. How's that for a trump card?

Posted by: brian at June 21, 2004 10:37 PM

The best theory I've seen is that the Mullahs are finding out whether the UK has any spine left.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at June 21, 2004 10:39 PM

It is unclear so far whether this was simply a mistake or a deliberate act by Iran to provoke something or, as AOG says, see if the UK has any spine. We'll have to see, hopefully the UK and US will act in such a way as to discourage Iran from getting even more aggressive.

Posted by: AWW at June 21, 2004 10:51 PM

I seem to recall some Argentine generals who desired an island vacation spot and also believed that Britain no longer had any spine left. Anyone recall how that episode turned out?

Posted by: Mike M at June 21, 2004 11:25 PM

I'm with Brian. The Iranians are massing their army on the border with Iraq and now they've attacked the Royal Navy. These goons have nukes, and probably quite a few of them.

Posted by: Peter at June 22, 2004 4:26 AM

Why wouldn't such a delivery have some
heavy backup? This doesn't seem right?

Posted by: J.H. at June 22, 2004 9:01 AM

Mike, Thatcher is not in charge this time.

All, Iran has two navies, one of which behaves itself. The other is basically a bunch of river pirates run by the mullahs.

Posted by: Uncle Bill at June 22, 2004 9:22 AM

Imagine! George Bush, not content with causing 9/11, has engineered his very own Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Our kind of guy!

Posted by: Barry Meislin at June 22, 2004 10:14 AM

Do Iranian airliners still fly over the Gulf?

Posted by: jim hamlen at June 22, 2004 10:24 AM
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