Iran seized British sailors 'in internationally-disputed waters'
Thursday, 17 Apr 2008 10:10
Reports claim HMS Cornwall was in internationally-disputed waters
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Fifteen Royal Navy personnel captured by
Iran in 2007 were taken in internationally-disputed waters, rather than official Iraqi territory, it has been claimed.
The Times newspaper claims to have obtained internal Ministry of Defence (MoD) documents which reveal the British sailors and marines seized by Iran had been taken due to a mistake by the US-led coalition in the region, which failed to inform Tehran of the redrawing of sea boundaries.
The crew were captured on March 23rd 2007 after straying into territorial waters which Iran claimed were its own, and were held captive for almost a fortnight before being released by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "gift".
Defence secretary Des Browne had told the House of Commons there was "no doubt" the HMS Cornwall had been in Iraqi-controlled waters which meant Iran had no justification to seize the personnel.
But according to the internal briefing papers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the claim that the Britons were seized in "Iraqi territorial waters" was incorrect, as a lack of formal ratification of borders since the onset of the Iran-Iraq war meant that a border between Iranian and Iraqi waters does not officially exist.
And while the so-called "coalition tactical demarcation" or "Op Line" had been assumed by coalition forces as a dividing line between Iranian and Iraqi waters, the coordinates of the border had not been given to Iran.
The seizing of the HMS Cornwall personnel was already labelled a "national embarrassment" by an all-party committee investigating the incident and today's reports confirm the extent of the confusion that led to the vessel's capture.