15 British naval personnel have been seized by Iranian navy

[harry hackedoff]

Quote


Government demands immediate and safe return of 15 British Personnel seized by Iranian Navy




HMS Cornwall in the Gulf
[Picture: LA (Phot) Jannine B Hartmann]
The incident took place at approximately 1030 Iraqi time.

The British Personnel were engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters in support of UNSCR 1723 and the government of Iraq.

Operating from HMS Cornwall, the UK boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.
We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and on the instructions of the Foreign Secretary, the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office.
The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment.
The MOD is currently in the process of informing the next-of-kin of the 15 personnel and would strongly urge the privacy of all families involved to be respected at what will be an extremely difficult time.

Any speculation about what might happen or the way our people may be treated could be genuinely dangerous, and the MOD urges media to refrain from such speculation whilst the Government conducts its urgent discussions with the Iranian authorities.

The MOD has activated a helpline for concerned families. The number is 08457 800 900

unquote

[Guardian of The Wall]

Full story here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6484279.stm

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/ ... index.html

Just when I thought I was gonna have myself a good day, this shit happens . Well.....who here wants to buy the popcorn to watch the next war unfold and who here wants to ring Mr.Bush and request air strikes here, here and here?

Just because we're keeping an eye on the Iranians and fighting a war on the other side of the fence next to them. The Iranians are supplying the bloody insurgents in Iraq aswell. I think it was the Americans who seized a load of weapons the other week in some house- provided by Iran!

[Hallsy]

I hope for a speedy end to this situation and for the safe return of the sailors & marines seized.

[harry hackedoff]

Er, just a small point

But does the Captain of HMS Cornwall realise his ship is fitted with radar? Or a `kin gert big gun?
Perhaps the Iranians have developed a Vulcan Cloaking Device

How the fork did Jack let this happen , ffs?



Was this gig run by the author of Swallows and Amazons or the mighty Royal Navy?
Total Fugging Disgrace

Chapter One, Projection Of Sea Power Abroad, refers.
See allso page eighty-five in Stating The Bleeding Obvious

[SO19]

Even more gear for their museum.

[harry hackedoff]

As part of Task Force 158, there should be no surprise attack on Cornwall`s assets because, as the 158 website says,

Combined Task Combined Task Force 158

The task force maintains a 24 hour surface picture, monitoring in excess of 200 transiting vessels at any time tracking any vessel approaching designated warning areas before following a pre-planned set of responses as part of the OPLAT protection mission

Sort yer life out, Jack ffs

[Hallsy]

and royal...no doubt there would have been FPGRM embarked with Cornwall!

[owdun]

Just a thought, maybe Jack has been put in a position, by our illustrious Govt, where he is under explicit orders not to retaliate to Iranian provocation,unless given the go-ahead by said Govt. Now that would not surprise me at all.


Owdun.

[_chris]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6489493.stm

Seized sailors 'taken to Tehran'

Commodore reacts
The 15 Royal Navy personnel seized at gunpoint in the Gulf by Iran are reportedly being questioned in Tehran.
Iranian armed forces spokesman Gen Ali Reza Afshar told Iranian radio the crew were being interrogated and had admitted being in Iranian waters.

He also said they were in "sterling health" and there had been no problems.

The British government says the eight sailors and seven marines were in Iraqi waters. It has demanded their immediate release.

The Fars news agency says the group - including one woman - was flown to Iran's capital and arrived in the Iranian capital at 1200 local time (0830 GMT).

Satellite tracking systems on the British boats proved they were inside Iranian waters, it added.

The German presidency of the European Union has demanded the immediate release of the personnel.

And Foreign Office junior minister Lord Triesman has met Iran's ambassador to London to demand their release.

'Aggressive action'

The 15 were seized on Friday after boarding a boat in the Gulf.

They were from HMS Cornwall, based in Plymouth - the flagship of the coalition-Iraqi force which patrols Iraqi territorial waters in the northern Gulf to combat smuggling.

The Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said they had been inspecting an Iraqi boat before clearing its skipper to continue with his business.

When they returned to their two small boats, they were "promptly arrested".

The helicopter then saw the British boats being moved along the Shatt al-Arab waterway to Iranian bases, Cmdr Lambert said.

There had been no evidence of fighting, he added.

Diplomats have held talks in Tehran and London since Friday's incident.

Ibrahim Rahimpour, Iran's director general for Western European affairs, said he had met the UK's charge d'affaires, Kate Smith, in Tehran.

He said he had delivered a "firm protest from Iran against the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters".

But former Royal Navy head Adm Sir Alan West dismissed suggestions the British boats had strayed into Iranian waters.

Sir Alan was first sea lord in 2004 when Iran detained eight British servicemen for three days after they allegedly strayed over the maritime border.

The men were paraded blindfolded and made to apologise on Iranian TV before their release was agreed.

Sir Alan told BBC News that tracking systems then had proven that the servicemen had been in Iraqi waters.

"They can do lots of smokescreens and things like that but I am absolutely clear in my mind it would have been in our waters," he said.

The Ministry of Defence has been in contact with relatives of the group.

Because of a long holiday period in Iran there has been little public comment.

The US military said it had been monitoring Iran's Revolutionary Guards - an elite fighting force appointed by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - "for years now" in Iraqi territorial waters.

Tehran question

BBC world affairs correspondent, Ian Pannell, who was earlier on board HMS Cornwall, said the mood on the ship was "quiet and determined" and that "the aspiration here is that this will be over sooner rather than later".

And the BBC's Bridget Kendall said the big question was whether the capture was part of a bigger political game, ahead of a UN Security Council vote in New York over further sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme.

But Sadegh Ziba Kalam, professor of politics at Tehran University, dismissed the idea that the seizure was a political move ahead of the vote.

"Everyone knows that would not change anything," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The seizure also follows claims that much of the violence against UK forces in Basra is being engineered by Iranian elements, which Tehran denies.

[harry hackedoff]

Agreed Frank. My response however, would be Fark That.
Lose fifteen guys? Desk job forever.
Blow the Iranians into Allah`s front parlour and you the man my son
No one would dare sack a Captain with such balls.
Don`t upset the cnuts because it may provoke an international incident
Hello
Far kem, if in doubt,shoot first and say sorry later. It works for the SAS

[Tab]

Now the Iranians knew the response from the HMS Cornwall would be slow, as they could not do any thing until they had contacted Whitehall. Now by taking these men prisoners on a Friday they knew the ships captain could not get any instructions until Monday at the earliest as every one had gone away for the weekend. Have we seen any government ministers on television saying how they are going to get these men back, well NO that will happen on Monday. Like Harry I can't understand why the Iranians were not told to back off when they approached and shot fired across their bows would have worked wonders. Now if they had picked the on the Americans then they would have sunk that ship with out a second thought.

[harry hackedoff]

Arab site says one of the Matelots is a Jenny. This get`s better.
And to think they can depend on Margaret Fugging Becket to get them out the shite.

[_chris]

^Yeah the BBC confirmed that Harry

All quiet now, our prime minister has commented -

Prime Minister Tony Blair has expressed very serious concerns over the detention of fifteen Royal Navy personnel by Iranian Authorities in a statement today, 25 March 2007.

Speaking at a meeting of European heads of Government in Berlin, the Rt Hon Tony Blair MP said:

"I have not been commenting upto now on this because I want to get it resolved in as easy and diplomatic way as possible, because it's the welfare of the people concerned that have been taken by the Iranian Government that is most important.

"But this is a very serious situation and there is no doubt at all that these people were taken from a boat in Iraqi water, it simply is not true that they went into Iranian territorial waters. And I hope the Iranian Government understand how fundamental an issue this is for us. We've certainly sent those messages back to them very very clearly indeed.

"I hope that this can be resolved over the next few days but the quicker it is resolved the easier it will be for all of us. But they should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act which was unjustified and wrong."

[Guardian of The Wall]

Now if we put all facts on where they were aside, let's look at the situation.

We weren't in Iranian waters we say.
We were in Iranian waters they say.

The argument comes down to GPS tracking, yey/ney?

What if......and this is where we go into our little fantasy - Some bad guy has tampered with the GPS like in Tomorrow Never Dies (Bond film) making the Royal Navy think they're safe when actually they are not?

I know this didn't happen but you can always imagine all reasons possible.....

[harry hackedoff]

Thanks for that positive input.
I`m sure it is a comfort to the families involved.
We`re talking about grown-up stuff here you twonk.