London-Tehran diplomacy shows improvement
Captain Chris Air appears on Iranian television
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The US has said it will not consider a 'prisoner swap' between detained British soldiers and Iranians captured by coalition forces in northern Iraq. |  |
Monday, 02, Apr 2007 07:58
Negotiations between Iran and Britain over the fate of 15 captured Royal Navy personnel have shown signs of progress.
The diplomatic language between London and Tehran softened today as both sides sought to cease escalating tensions over the impasse, which centres on whether or not the captured sailors entered Iranian waters off the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
Britain has indicated it is prepared to consider ways to avoid similar situations occurring in the future while Iran said it will not broadcast any further footage of the detained personnel.
Furthermore Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's national security council, said this evening that a trial of the 14 men and one woman held in Iran - previously cited as a possibility by senior officials - will not be necessary.
"This issue can be resolved and there is no need for any trial," he told Channel 4 News.
Earlier today, in two separate broadcasts, fresh footage of two of the 15 personnel was aired on the state-run Al-Alam television station.
The footage, released in two films, showed Royal Marine Captain Chris Air and Lieutenant Felix Carman standing in front of a large map of the Gulf seas pointing to marks in Iranian waters and apologising for entering Iranian waters.
"At approximately about ten o'clock in the morning we were seized, apparently at this point here from their maps and the GPS they showed us, which is inside Iranian territorial waters," Captain Air said.
He added that the 14 men and one woman had been "treated very well" in the past ten days.
A similar apologetic message was given by Lieutenant Carman: "I'd like to say to the Iranian people, I can understand why you were so angry about our intrusion into your waters."
The sailors were seized on March 23rd as their patrol boat boarded a merchant vessel in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran in the northern Gulf.
"It's unacceptable for these pictures to be shown given the potential distress to their families," a Foreign Office spokesperson commented earlier.