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UK says 15 soliders detained by Iranian navy

This has happened before. Last time the UK soldiers were returned unharmed, I suspect the same will happen again.
 
GarzaUK said:
This has happened before. Last time the UK soldiers were returned unharmed, I suspect the same will happen again.
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Thats what I am thinking. Nothing bad will happen, but the media is going to run with this for as long as it is, since they have run the Annah Nicole Smith as far as it can go....
 
The key to the seizure is probably this:

He said the confrontation happened as the British contingent was traveling along the boundary of territorial waters between Iran and Iraq.
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They probably strayed into Iranian waters, which Iran had been watching for them to do. Here is another idea. They strayed into Iranian waters to test the Iranian response and defenses. It is no secret that we have been running spy missions into Iran for quite some time now.
 
danarhea said:
Here is another idea. They strayed into Iranian waters to test the Iranian response and defenses. It is no secret that we have been running spy missions into Iran for quite some time now.
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Unless the "sailors" were Royal Marines, I can't see this as a possibility.
 
I think it was British Royal Marines. I know the link says sailors, but on the morning news they said British Marines. Its was a seizure of a naval vessel, which would usually fall to Marines, and not your standard sailors right??
 
If they weren't really in Iranian waters, it's an act of war. Iran should probably work hard to return Britain's soldiers unharmed as quickly as possible.
 
The Captain of the Cornwall was derelict in his duties here.

He never should have let a possibly hostile ship close on his cutters and his vulnerable boarding party. The Iranians should have beeen fired on when they approached the area of the ship being investigated. Cornwall's Captain hesitated, erred, and let those few, vulnerable men inspecting that boat down. His Cutters should not have been too far away to protect, and he should not have let any other ship of war into the area while his men were still vulnerable.
 
Page two of the link..


Fisherman witnessed scene
A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman, who was contacted by telephone by an AP reporter in Basra, declined to be identified because of security concerns.

“Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters.”

The Cornwall’s commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said the frigate lost communication with the boarding party, but a helicopter crew saw the Iranian vessels approach.

“I’ve got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians and my immediate concern is their safety,” Lambert told British Broadcasting Corp. television.
 
If we dont get them back completly safe and unharmed we should sink their entire navy.
 
The Iranian Navy was in the process of conducting war games the week in question. The sailors and marines should be returned in a timely fashion, unharmed. If they are harmed in anyway that should be a pre-requisite for war. Hopefully the rest of the world would reach the same conclusion. Germany and China have pushed for economic sanctions against Iran, as well as Russia pulling out approximately 2,000 engineers from Iranian nuclear sites for repeatedly failing to pay their monthly dues.
 
From what I understand, the British naval forces were participating in a UN program to interdict smuggling operations in this area.

Iran holding 15 British sailors
Michael Thurston in Tehran
March 23, 2007

A ministry spokesman declined to give further details, but underlined that the British navy was boarding merchant ships in Iraqi waters in support of UN Security Council resolution 1723.

“Typically what happens is that we would send a couple of inflatables,” he said.

“It was a routine boarding operation in support of the UN resolution.

“Normally what would happen is that we have the Navy ships monitoring vessels going in and out of the area, so we would call them up on the radio and go through a simple list of checks and if there's anything that's not right, they send out two boats of naval personnel to board it.

“They check the cargo and see if the boat needs any assistance,” he said.

British naval boats routinely patrol the Shatt al-Arab to clamp down on smugglers operating between Iraq and Iran.
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Source
 
cherokee said:
Page two of the link..


Fisherman witnessed scene
A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman, who was contacted by telephone by an AP reporter in Basra, declined to be identified because of security concerns.

“Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters.”

The Cornwall’s commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said the frigate lost communication with the boarding party, but a helicopter crew saw the Iranian vessels approach.

“I’ve got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians and my immediate concern is their safety,” Lambert told British Broadcasting Corp. television.
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Oh this raises some very disturbing questions like: "what did the Iranians not want the search parties to find?"
 
PDMObserver said:
The Iranian Navy was in the process of conducting war games the week in question. The sailors and marines should be returned in a timely fashion, unharmed. If they are harmed in anyway that should be a pre-requisite for war. Hopefully the rest of the world would reach the same conclusion. Germany and China have pushed for economic sanctions against Iran, as well as Russia pulling out approximately 2,000 engineers from Iranian nuclear sites for repeatedly failing to pay their monthly dues.
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I believe the Russians have pledged to veto any sanctions.
 
They should give them 72 hours. Period. No conditions. Agree to call it a misunderstanding resolved by cooperative diplomatic understanding. Then drop it. Everybody looks good.

On hour 73, if the captured Brits are not safely tucked into their racks on some HMS ship....light Iran up like the 4th of July.
 
It's an act of aggression, on the eve of a U.N. Security Council vote (today).

There is no question the Iranians are posturing muscle as a veiled threat. This might not be it, but things are going to escalate eventually.
 
And on the heels of the UN vote...

Great Pic of Ahmadinejad

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

----------------*Snip*----------------------

The penalty for espionage in Iran is death. However, similar accusations of spying were made when eight British servicemen were detained in the same area in 2004. They were paraded blindfolded on television but did not appear in court and were freed after three nights in detention.

Iranian student groups called yesterday for the 15 detainees to be held until US forces released five Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq earlier this year...
 
One worry I really have is Iran is just waiting for an excuse to attack another country...say maybe england... and they may have already have nuclear weapons...say from Russia maybe....

Or it could just be more political posing and I'm just paranoid
 
If 15 Iranian soldiers were suddenly stuck in the Thames would UK listen to the Iranian demands to release them immediately?

The one who thinks that UK would release them immediately is nothing but a hypocrite.
 
Captain America said:
They should give them 72 hours. Period. No conditions. Agree to call it a misunderstanding resolved by cooperative diplomatic understanding. Then drop it. Everybody looks good.

On hour 73, if the captured Brits are not safely tucked into their racks on some HMS ship....light Iran up like the 4th of July.
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We dont want to be doing that. If Iran responded to that they could hit us where it hurt, namely iraq.
 
Red_Dave said:
We dont want to be doing that. If Iran responded to that they could hit us where it hurt, namely iraq.
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Fear is certainly a powerful motivating force, and I can understand your ingrained European fear of confronting Nazis, but haven't you folks learned anything from history? The more you appease, the bolder they become. Cowardice reinforces their strategy since you are showing them how well it works.
 
Gardener said:
but haven't you folks learned anything from history? The more you appease, the bolder they become. Cowardice reinforces their strategy since you are showing them how well it works.
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Don't worry, they promote the cowardice of other countries towards these nowadays Nazis. They know very well how to take care of their interests. They have a huge nuclear arsenal but they are telling that Israel have no right to hold this kind of weapon. Hizbullah refuses to say if the Israeli soldiers are alive and they (the British regime's mantra) are speaking only about disproportionate repsonse of Israel.

I have to admit that they got what they ask for other countries.

Those British knights of double standard.
 
The face of Jacob said:
If 15 Iranian soldiers were suddenly stuck in the Thames would UK listen to the Iranian demands to release them immediately?

The one who thinks that UK would release them immediately is nothing but a hypocrite.
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If Iranians were in the Thames, under UN Mandate, like the Brits in those waters, there would be no problem.
 
VTA said:
If Iranians were in the Thames, under UN Mandate, like the Brits in those waters, there would be no problem.
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Does the UN mandate allows them to enter the sea territory of Iran?
 
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