Report reveals Iran seized British sailors in disputed waters

[Sunfish]

Report reveals Iran seized British sailors in disputed waters.

Why am I not surprised?

It appears that no one bothered to tell Iran about the allies decision to designate a disputed stretch of water as being under Iraqi control.

It would thus appear that Iran's actions were entirely reasonable since in disputed waters no one should be there at all without both party's permission

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3761058.ece

[Archimedes]

With respect, Sunfish, while it's fair to say that not telling the Iranians was silly, their actions were still wrong.

All they were entitled to do was to turn up, say 'Oi! Bu&&er off, this is our water - by the way, any of you wanting to sell an I-Pod cheaply?' and expect the boarding party to leave. Taking them hostage was not 'entirely reasonable'.

Unfortunately, since the government was rather too keen to handle the situation badly, the point that the Iranian response was completely disproportionate to the situation whether the sailors had inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters (which they hadn't, since they aren't declared as such, being disputed) or not wasn't made forcefully enough, or often enough.

Had the Iranians detained them for a couple of hours and sent them on their way again to make their point, then I suppose a case could be made that they'd have been in the 'reasonable' (but not legal) ballpark, but holding them for two weeks? No, sorry, not reasonable at all.

[Chilli Monster]

Just a pity we didn't learn the lessons and possibilities from a previous incident :rolleyes:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6228342.stm

[BEagle]

The BBC has been told the Australians re-boarded the vessel they had just searched, aimed their machine guns at the approaching Iranians and warned them to back off, using what was said to be "highly colourful language".


But would the UK's huggy-fluffy MoD have allowed Armed Forces personnel to use "highly colourful langauage", let alone to "aim a machine gun"?

Wouldn't some latte-sipping, ambulance-chasing legal weasel have demanded a Court Martial for such 'abuse of human rights'.....:rolleyes:

Love to have heard what the Aussies said though!