Iran demands Britain admit its sailors crossed border

TEHRAN, Iran: Iran demanded Thursday that Britain acknowledge that its sailors had violated Iranian waters before Tehran will release the 15 service members seized last week in disputed waters of the Persian Gulf.

The demand was made by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as Tehran withdrew an offer to soon free the only woman among the British crew, who were taken into custody last Friday after inspecting a merchant vessel suspected of smuggling cars.

"Britain should accept that this violation has been committed," Mottaki told Iranian state television, referring to Iran's claims that the Britons had strayed into Iranian waters.

"This will help in subsequent phases ... to resolve the issue quicker," Mottaki added, reiterating that after Iranian preliminary investigations, the British consulate in Iran will have access to the sailors.

Britain insists the 15 were seized in Iraqi waters and has asked the U.N. Security Council to support a call for their immediate release. Prime Minister Tony Blair's government also said it was freezing most contacts with Iran.

Britain's ambassador to Tehran was again summoned to Iran's foreign ministry Thursday evening and handed an official protest note over what Iran calls "illegal entry of British sailors" into Iranian territorial waters, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

In an effort to ease the crisis, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejhad to allow a Turkish diplomat in Tehran to meet with the captives, Iranian TV reported.

Ahmadinejad accused Britain of trying to solve the crisis through propaganda and not diplomacy, the report said.

Heightened tensions over the standoff helped send crude oil prices surging above $66 a barrel Thursday, a new six-month high. Traders said the strained relations between Iran and the West could put oil exports in jeopardy.

The new tensions Thursday followed what appeared to be signs from Iran that it was prepared to resolve the crisis quickly.

On Wednesday, Mottaki told reporters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that woman sailor Faye Turney would be released soon, possibly Thursday.

But the Iranians rolled back on the offer after Britain threatened to freeze relations and refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council — moves that appeared to enrage Tehran.

Iranian military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, said that owing to the "wrong behavior" of the British government, "the release of a female British soldier has been suspended."

Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani said the British leaders "have miscalculated this issue" and if they follow through with threats, the case "may face a legal path" — presumably putting the Britons on trial.

Iranian officials made clear the matter should be resolved between the two governments and that international mediation was unwelcome.

"This is a mutual issue and it is related to Iran and Britain," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said, adding that "intervention by unrelated parties will not help settle this issue."

Iranian state TV broadcast additional footage Thursday of what it said was the operation that led to the Britons' seizure.

The five-seconds long video showed a helicopter hovering above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Iranian guard boats are shown cruising around. Then, the British sailors — including Turney — appear seated in a boat with an Iranian flag, presumably after their capture.

Also in the broadcast, the Iranian chief coastal guard of the Arvand River — which is the Farsi name for the Shatt el-Arab waterway — was interviewed in an office, pointing to a map to show places where he claimed British sailors had earlier trespassed into Iranian waters.

Another letter also allegedly written by Turney, calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, was released by the Iranian government Thursday.

The letter, whose authenticity could not immediately be determined, was addressed to British lawmakers, and said that "unfortunately, we entered Iranian waters."

In related developments, the Iranian consul in Basra, Iraq, charged that British soldiers on Thursday had surrounded his office and fired shots into the air.

The Ministry of Defense in London said the shooting was an exchange of gunfire after British troops on a foot patrol near the Iranian consulate were ambushed.

But Iranian Consul-General Mohammed Ridha Nasir Baghban said British forces had engaged in a "provocative act" that "could worsen the situation of the British sailors."