Chinese Mandarin - Britain studying Iran standoff options

WORLD / Middle East

Britain studying Iran standoff options

(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-01 20:07

LONDON - Britain examined options Sunday for new dialogue with Tehran
over the seized crew of 15 sailors and marines, as a poll suggested most
Britons back the government's goal of resolving the standoff through
diplomacy.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a meeting in Tehran on 6
March. The United States has said it would expedite Ahmadinejad's request
for a visa to address the UN Security Council when it votes on a new
sanctions resolution against his country next week. [AFP]

Government and defense officials refused to discuss a report that claimed
a Royal Navy captain or commodore would be sent to Tehran as a special
envoy to negotiate the return of the personnel.

The official would deliver an assurance that British naval crews would
never deliberately enter Iranian waters without permission, the Sunday
Telegraph newspaper reported.

Britain's Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense said they would not
comment on negotiations, or on options being considered. "We will
continue to conduct our diplomatic discussions in private," a Foreign
Office spokesman said on the government's customary condition of
anonymity.

But Transport Minister Douglas Alexander said Britain was engaged in
"exploring the potential for dialogue with the Iranians."

"The responsible way forward is to continue the often unglamorous, but
important and quiet diplomatic work to get our personnel home," Alexander
told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Sunday AM program.

A Defense Ministry spokeswoman declined to comment on claims officials
had lost optimism of a quick end to the standoff, saying speculation
about diplomatic efforts threatened to hinder progress.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett appeared to soften rhetoric
against Iran Saturday �� though she stopped far short of the apology
sought by many in Iran.

"I think everyone regrets that this position has arisen," Beckett said in
Bremen, Germany, before returning to England. "What we want is a way out
of it."

The Foreign Office and Blair's Downing Street office said it welcomed
U.S. President Bush's intervention �� calling Saturday for the release of
the sailors and marines and labeling their capture by Tehran "inexcusable
behavior."

"Iran must give back the hostages," Bush said. "They're innocent, they
did nothing wrong, and they were summarily plucked out of waters."

Eight British sailors and seven marines were detained by Iranian naval
units March 23 while patrolling for smugglers near the mouth of the Shatt
al-Arab, a waterway that has long been a disputed dividing line between
Iraq and Iran.

Tehran says the crew was in Iranian waters, but Britain insists its
troops were on the Iraqi side of the maritime border.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called world powers "arrogant" for
failing to apologize.

"Instead of apologizing over trespassing by British forces, the world
arrogant powers issue statements and deliver speeches," Iran's official
IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying during a speech in the
southeastern city of Andinmeshk.

A poll published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper found that 66 percent
of respondents trusted Blair and Beckett to resolve the crisis, while 28
percent did not. Only 7 percent thought the government should be
preparing to use military force.

Pollster ICM interviewed 762 adults by telephone March 30 and 31. The
margin of error is plus or minus four percentage points.

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