UK/IRAN:Iran dramatically raised the stakes in its tense diplomatic stand-off with Britain last night, broadcasting a video of the British sailors and marines seized last week, including a "confession" that they had entered Iranian waters.
The British foreign office reacted furiously to the video, calling it "completely unacceptable" and expressed "grave concerns" about the conditions under which seaman Faye Turney was persuaded to admit that the 15-strong British naval patrol had strayed into Iranian territory last Friday.
In the next 24 hours, Britain is to start moves towards a UN Security Council resolution condemning the seizure of the personnel and the TV screening. The soundings will be initially informal, but defence secretary Des Browne said the refusal to release the sailors was unacceptable. Britain had not been planning to go to the UN until next week when it takes over the security council chairmanship.
Ms Turney was shown wearing a headscarf and makeup, and smoking while giving an account of the incident, which was translated and voiced over in the broadcast. "Obviously we trespassed into their waters," she is shown saying. "They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested; there was no harm, no aggression."
The video was broadcast by al-Alam, an Iranian satellite channel broadcasting across the Middle East in Arabic. It was not shown in Farsi to a domestic Iranian audience. It included footage of other marines and sailors sitting and eating, showing no obvious signs of injury. It also showed a handwritten letter purporting to be by Ms Turney to her parents, saying she had "written a letter to the Iranian people to apologise for us entering into their waters".
London is convinced the admissions were made under duress, and is not convinced that the screening is a precursor to the sailors' release. Tony Blair's office said they would continue to ratchet up the pressure slowly.
"The next few days will be [ used] to increase Iran's sense of diplomatic isolation," a government official said.
The Iranian embassy in London said it had handed the letter to the British government, adding that the captive crew were "in good health and condition and they enjoy welfare and Iranian hospitality".
"We understand the anxiety of their families, but they must be assured that they are in safe hands and have a better life than the risky mission in the Persian Gulf waters," the statement said.
British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett condemned the video and the release of the letter, saying she was particularly disappointed that a private letter has been used in a way which can only add to the families' distress.
Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki last night said Ms Turney would be released "as soon as possible", but that is hardly likely to defuse the crisis.
The video came soon after a British announcement that it was cutting off official contacts with Tehran on any business apart from the naval detainees. The ministry of defence also issued a detailed account of the seizure of the naval patrol last Friday, with charts, map co-ordinates and photographs supporting Britain's insistence that it was well within Iraqi waters when it was surrounded by Iranian gunboats. Ms Beckett also alleged that the Iranian government had changed its story over the past few days in an attempt to support its contention that the two British patrol boats had entered Iranian waters near the Shatt al-Arab waterway separating Iraq from Iran.
Britain had already begun canvassing its partners in the security council and the EU, seeking solidarity in the showdown with Iran. Ministers are pinning their hopes on Turkey and Germany as the main two levers on Tehran.
At an Arab League summit in Riyadh, the UN secretary general Ban ki-Moon, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari all raised the fate of the captives with Mr Mottaki at Britain's behest.
Patrick Cronin, director of studies at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said the crisis represented a counterattack by Iranian radicals after months of international pressure over its nuclear programme.
"They want something," Dr Cronin said. "They clearly want to change the subject. They want to go on the offensive."
There is considerable evidence that the 15 sailors and marines were captured and are being held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which represents a state within a state, with its own forces, its own political representatives and its own hardline ideology. Al-Alam, the television channel that broadcast last night's video, is thought to have ties to ultra-conservative factions.
Iran is seeking the release of five officials arrested by US forces in Iraq in January, who the Americans claim are senior members of the IRGC. However, the Iranian foreign ministry has denied Tehran is seeking a prisoner swap.