US: No Iran prisoner swap
The US holds five Iranians detained in Iraq in January
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Saturday, 31, Mar 2007 08:40
The US has said it will not consider a 'prisoner swap' between detained British soldiers and Iranians captured by coalition forces in northern Iraq.
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday, state department spokesperson Scott McCormack told reporters that the US stood firmly behind Britain on the issue of the detained Navy personnel.
"We've been very supportive of the British," he said, before making clear that "this is an issue between the UK and Iran".
Five Iranians were captured by coalition forces in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil in January. The US claims the men were agents of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, working to assist terrorists undermine Iraq's struggling security situation.
"I know that there have been some anonymous Iranian sources that have sought to draw the US into this by suggesting a swap of personnel, the Iranian personnel held by multinational forces in Iraq. We reject any sort of linkage between those two, unconditionally," Mr McCormack said.
On Thursday evening British negotiators succeeded in securing wider international backing for its stance on the diplomatic incident with a UN resolution.
Commentators said pressure from concerned countries like Russia dampened the language of the resolution, which nevertheless expressed "grave concern" over Iran's continued detention of the personnel.
Mr McCormack said that the US had supported Britain's "efforts to have the most robust form of statement that they could possibly get" but said the UN operated by "consensus", causing the less inflammatory language.