Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini on
Wednesday confirmed that the only woman among the 15 captured
British sailors and marines would be released, the official IRNA
news agency reported. Hosseini was quoting Iranian Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki's announcement to this effect on the sidelines
of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.
Last Friday, Iran arrested fifteen British naval personnel
whilst they were on patrol along the Iraqi border with Iran.
On Wednesday, Iran broadcast the first pictures of the 15
British sailors with female captive dressed in a white tunic and a
black head scarf. Tehran has accused the British boats of
"trespassing" on Iranian waters.
An infuriated Britain immediately slammed the footage, decrying
that it was completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown
on television".
"Obviously we trespassed into their waters," sailor Faye Turney,
26, said on the footage broadcast by Al-Alam, an Iranian state-run
television station broadcast around the Middle-East. "They were
very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people.
They explained to us why we've been arrested, there was no harm, no
aggression," she said.
Turney, was also shown in uniform eating with sailors and
marines and also smoking a cigarette with eyes downcast.
"My name is Leading Sailman Faye Turney. I come from England. I
have served in Foxtrot 99. I've been in the navy for nine years,"
she said to the camera. The footage also included a handwritten
letter allegedly from Turney to her family.
The letter contained the phrase: "I have written a letter to the
Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters." Turney
was the only person to be shown speaking in the video.
Another scene appeared to depict the British sailors sitting in
an Iranian boat in open waters shortly after their capture.
Iran's accusations that the British boats made a deliberate
"incursion" into Iranian territorial waters have been denied by
Britain. UK authorities have revealed that at the time of the
capture, the soldiers were engaged in routine boarding operations
in Iraqi territorial waters under the authority of the UN Security
Council Resolution 1723 and the Iraqi government.
Also Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett
announced the suspension of all bilateral talks with Iran until all
the soldiers are released.
(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily via agencies March 29,
2007)
