IRAN: Iran detained three British navy vessels and arrested eight British crew members yesterday when the boats entered its territorial waters near the Iraqi border.
The small rigid inflatable boats were on their way to being dropped off to Iraqis as part of a training mission in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, a stretch of water that separates Iran and Iraq and flows into the Persian Gulf.
Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Mr Hamid Reza Asefi, said in a statement that the men detained were being interrogated.
Iran says that the boats were armed with heavy machine-guns and identified the detainees as Royal Navy Commandos. They also seized GPS (global positioning system) devices, assault rifles, pistols, cameras and detailed maps of the Iran-Iraq border area.
Britain confirmed that eight of its military personnel were being held. "We can confirm that eight Royal Navy personnel from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq have been detained by the Iranian authorities while delivering a boat from Umm Qsar to Basra," Britain's Ministry of Defence said.
"The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is liaising with the Iranian Government to resolve the situation," it added.
The Ministry added that it was usual to have maps and weapons on such a training exercise.
Iran's Arabic-language satellite news channel, Al-Alam, reported that the crew were arrested shortly before midday and that they would air television footage of them.
Analysts believe that Iran is exerting its ownership of its half of the Shatt-al-Arab. Known in Iran as the Arvand Ruud river, the heavily-disputed waterway was the catalyst for the eight-year Iran-Iraq war and has been the cause of scores of skirmishes between the two countries.
"Maintaining the integrity of the Shatt-al-Arab border has long been one of Iran's most important goals in relations with its neighbours," an analyst said.
"If it thinks the occupational forces in Iraq are not taking this seriously enough, it will act and it has acted."
Earlier this month, eight UAE fishing boats were seized by Iran for violating its maritime borders, apparently, in a tit-for-tat response to the seizure of an Iranian vessel that entered UAE territory.
The detention of the British boats comes at a time of increasingly strained relations between the two countries.
Britain recently heightened international pressure on Iran's nuclear programme in partnership with France and Germany. The three countries tabled a resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, deploring the level of Iranian co-operation with the inspections process.
Britain's role has also been noted in a stinging European rebuke to Iran following the latest meeting in a process of human rights dialogue between Iran and the EU.
The move could also be intended as a signal of Iranian concern at the occupation of Iraq. Last month, conservative students threw rocks and home-made explosives at the British embassy in Tehran, demonstrating against occupation activities in the holy Shi'a shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala.
In the longer perspective, relations between the two countries are enjoying one of the best periods since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. UK foreign secretary Mr Jack Straw has visited Tehran several times over the past few years and Britain actively supports a policy of engagement with Iran's theocratic government.