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Iran Slams Threats in Sailors Spat
sailors.
Head of Iran`s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani also said Tehran may delay the release of the female British sailor because of London`s "incorrect attitude".
Iran had said it would soon free Faye Turney, the only woman among 15 British sailors and marines arrested last week in Iranian territorial waters near Iraq.
Larijani however told Iranian state television that British leaders "have miscalculated this issue`` and if they follow through with threats, the case "may face a legal path``, hinting that the trespassing sailors may face trial.
Informed officials, speaking to Alalam, confirmed that Turney would not be released "for the time being``.
The latest developments came as Britain raised the stakes in the spat, with Prime Minister Tony Blair`s government saying it was freezing most contacts with Iran.
But Iran`s official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted a government official as playing down the consequences of the British freeze.
"Tehran-London relations were already cold,`` the agency quoted an unidentified official as saying.
Britain also said it was seeking to raise the issue in the UN Security Council.
Larijani condemned it as a "miscalculated" step.
"Instead of sending a technical team to examine the problem, they kicked up a media storm, announced a freeze in relations and spoke about the Security Council. That will not resolve the problem," he said.
Meanwhile, British forces stormed and surrounded the Iranian consulate in Iraq`s southern city of Basra, the mission said on Thursday.
Iranian consul Mohammad Reza Nasir Baghban said British forces sealed off the consulate and went inside for 10 minutes, after which "there was intense gunfire on them".
"This is a provocative act against the Iranian consulate in Basra. I believe it has something to do with the British detainees in Iran," he said.
The raid came in the face of Iran`s indications that it was willing to resolve the spat.
Foreign Minister Manoucherh Mottaki said Wednesday that if the illegal entry into Iranian waters proved to have been a mistake "this can be solved".
"But they (Britain) have to show that it was a mistake. That will help us to end this issue.``
"Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem,`` he said. Mottaki said Iran had GPS devices from the seized British boats that showed they were in Iranian territory.
On Wednesday, Alalam broadcast a video of the sailors, in which Turney acknowledged that her group had "trespassed`` in Iranian waters.
Turney also showed to the television channel her handwritten letter to her family.
"I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters,`` it said.
"Obviously we trespassed into their waters,`` Turney said at one point.
"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.``
Britain contends that the sailors were within Iraqi waters when seized.
But the Iranian embassy in London insisted that the British personnel had "illegally entered" up to 500 meters (yards) within Iranian territorial waters.
A navy official told the state news agency IRNA that the sailors had entered its waters at six different points before they were arrested.
"These 15 British troops in two boats had entered and stayed in Iran`s territorial waters at six points before they were arrested by the patrols," IRNA quoted an unnamed navy official as saying.
"The coast guards have documented and filmed British forces violating international law," the Iranian official said.
"Their entry and stay in our waters is certain according to the information recorded on the British sailors` GPS."