Britain wants direct talks with Iran to end sailor standoff (cbc.ca)
Britain says it wants direct bilateral talks to resolve a standoff over 15 British sailors being held by Iran after officials spoke for the first time Tuesday with Tehran's chief negotiator.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office said in a statement late Tuesday that "both sides share a desire for an early resolution to this issue through direct talks."
Ali Larijani, Iran's chief international negotiator, has suggested a delegation could determine whether the sailors had strayed into Iranian territory in the Persian Gulf.
(CBC)
"The U.K. has proposed direct bilateral discussions and awaits an Iranian response on when these can begin," the statement read.
It came just hours after British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett warned against expecting a swift resolution to the crisis.
Earlier Tuesday, Blair told a Scottish radio show that he drew hope of an end to the crisis after Ali Larijani, Iran's chief international negotiator, suggested that a diplomatic solution could be found.
"If they want to resolve this in a diplomatic way, the door is open," said Blair. But if negotiations to win the quick release of the sailors and marines stalls, Britain will "take an increasingly tougher position," he warned.
In an interview with Britain's Channel 4 television news on Monday, Larijani said there's no need to put the sailors on trial.
"We are not interested in letting this issue get further complicated," he said through an interpreter. He said Iran's priority "is to solve the problem through proper diplomatic channels."
Larijani also suggested a delegation could determine whether the sailors had strayed into Iranian territory in the Persian Gulf, but he did not say what sort of delegation he had in mind.
The crew was detained by Iranian Revolutionary Guards on March 23 while patrolling for smugglers in the Persian Gulf as part of a United Nations-mandated force. At the time, their boat was in the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway divided by a disputed border between Iraq and Iran.
Dispute over waters
Tehran contends the sailors were in Iranian waters, while Britain says they were in Iraqi waters and has refused Tehran's demands for an apology.
On Tuesday, Blair outlined two possible approaches to the incident.
"One is to try settle this by way of peaceful and calm negotiation to get our people back as quickly as possible," he said. "The other is to make it clear that if that is not possible that we have to take an increasingly tougher position."
British officials earlier condemned television footage of the captured sailors confessing to having strayed into Iranian waters. Britain said the statements appeared coerced.
On Monday, Iranian state radio said Tehran will no longer broadcast videos of captured British sailors because of what it called "positive changes" in Britain's negotiating stance.
The reports did not specify what those changes are, nor did they quote any government official on the decision.
But a short time after state radio made its announcement, a British official said the government is willing to discuss ways to avoid territorial disputes in the Persian Gulf to free the sailors.
Britain, however, wants an unconditional release of the crew and is not negotiating for their freedom, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the crisis.
Iranian diplomat freed
Meanwhile on Monday, an Iranian diplomat in Iraq seized two months ago by gunmen in Iraqi uniforms was released, a senior Iraqi foreign ministry official said.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information, the official said his government was "intensively" seeking the release of five other Iranians detained there by the United States to "help in the release of the British sailors and marines."
In January, the U.S. military seized the Iranians in a raid in northern Iraq, accusing them of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents and militias in Iraq.
The Iraqi official would not say who had custody of the Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who was released Monday and returned to Tehran on Tuesday. Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency confirmed Sharafi's release.
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