Sailors: Britain wants ‘way out’

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said such talk worried her. “Obviously, I am concerned. It is not the first person to have made sabre-rattling noises,” she told reporters after a European Union foreign ministers’ meeting in Germany.

Another twist was provided by an Iranian opposition group on Saturday which claimed Tehran’s capture of the 15 sailors and marines had been planned in advance. The group said this was in retaliation against UN sanctions imposed against the country.

But Beckett struck a conciliatory note when asked by an Iranian reporter if she had a message for Iran, saying: “The message I want to send is I think everyone regrets that this position has arisen. What we want is a way out of it.” However, Britain maintains the sailors were seized in Iraqi territorial waters.

The foreign secretary also said Britain had sent Iran a written reply to its diplomatic note on the detention of the sailors in the Gulf but received no response so far.

Iran seized the sailors and marines in the northern Gulf on March 23 when they were on a UN-backed mission. Tehran says they strayed into Iranian waters but Britain insists they were in Iraqi territory.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry delivered a letter to Britain’s embassy in Tehran on Thursday, the first written communication between the two sides since the crisis began.

The IRNA news agency said the Iranian message asked for “necessary guarantees that violations against Iranian waters would not be repeated”.