Thursday - April 05, 2007

Free At Last

LONDON (NY TIMES) - Thursday, April 5 — Iran on Thursday morning released the 15 British sailors and marines it seized at sea nearly two weeks ago, resolving a diplomatic impasse with what Iran’s president called a “gift” to the British people.

In announcing his intentions on Wednesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said that although Iran had every right to try the Britons on charges of trespassing in Iranian territorial waters, it would instead forgive them and allow them to go home.

The captives met with the British ambassador to Iran late Wednesday night, the Foreign Office said. But a spokesman said they were still in Iranian custody and that their travel arrangements were still being made.

About 7 a.m. Thursday in Tehran (4:30 a.m. in London), the Britons arrived at the airport for an 8 a.m. commercial flight to London, Reuters said. Shortly before 8:30, Iran Radio reported the plane had left.

On Wednesday, Iranian state television showed the president smiling, chatting and shaking the hands of some of the captives. Dressed in ill-fitting clothes apparently issued by their captors, the Britons waited in line to meet the president, looking almost as if they were a visiting sports team. “We are grateful for your forgiveness,” one said to Mr. Ahmadinejad, seemingly off the cuff.

News of the planned release, after days of behind-the-scenes diplomatic maneuvering, brought a peaceful, almost anticlimactic end to a crisis that began on March 23 when the Britons were seized in the disputed waters of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, just north of the Persian Gulf.

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested that the resolution was a vindication of Britain’s two-pronged strategy of conciliation laced with toughness.

“Throughout, we have taken a measured approach, firm but calm, not negotiating but not confronting either,” Mr. Blair said. Britain bore no ill will toward the Iranian people, he told reporters, and respected Iran’s “proud and dignified history.”

Officials denied that concessions were made for the Britons’ release. But on Tuesday, an Iranian diplomat held by Iraqi forces for eight weeks was released, and on Wednesday, American officials said they were reviewing an informal request from the Iranian government for an envoy to visit five Iranians imprisoned after an American raid in northern Iraq in January.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 04/05/2007 at 04:38 AM   
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