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UK prepared to go 'into different phase' if sailors and marines not released by Iran within days

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

On Tuesday Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair said in a televised interview that if the 15 sailors and marines who were arrested by Iranian forces are not released then Britain will be forced to "move into a different phase" of operations, and that Iran has only days to release all 15 sailors and marines.
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Ahmadinejad to free British navy personnel

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has announced that the fifteen British captured navy personnel detained by Iran would be released, saying they have been pardoned as a gift to the British people.


The sailors and marines from the frigate HMS Cornwall had been inspecting, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1723, a ship that was believed to be smuggling cars into Iraq, though it was subsequently cleared after inspection when Iranian gunboats surrounded the sailors and arrested them at gunpoint.
 He added that he was "asking Mr Blair to not put these 15 personnel on trial because they admitted they came to Iranian territorial water,", apparently trying to imply that the British servicemen were on a secret mission into Iranian waters, and should not have "confessed" on television to being in Iranian waters.
 The Iranian government then stated that it was not the first time that British ships had entered Iranian waters.
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's Prime Minister.
