UK:British prime minister Tony Blair continued to walk a diplomatic tightrope yesterday, saying attempts to secure the release of 15 sailors and marines being held by Iran would enter "a different phase" should diplomatic efforts fail, writes Frank Millar, London Editor
"What we are trying to do at the moment is pursue this through diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand that these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them," Mr Blair told GMTV.
However, he was adamant that they would have to be released, adding: "I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."
As foreign secretary Margaret Beckett again called for the "speedy return" of the service personnel, and minister Ian McCartney updated MPs in the Commons, the prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair's reference to a "different phase" did not mean military action or the expulsion of diplomats.
Indicating that Downing Street could eventually release evidence proving the group had not ventured into Iranian waters, the spokesman said: "We have been clearly stating that we are utterly certain the personnel were in Iraqi waters." Confirming Mr Blair's dilemma, the spokesman continued: "We have so far not made explicit why we know that, because we do not want to escalate this." Those comments underlined Mr Blair's difficulty in applying pressure without being seen to do so, for fear of "boxing Iran into a corner".
However, Britain's former ambassador to the country Richard Dalton said the "different phase" envisaged probably meant increased public criticism of the Iranian action coupled with the generation of greater pressure from the international community. "It could be that they [Downing Street] think dramatising the fact that these people were taken on an international mission while in Iraqi waters even further will give Iran pause and a chance to rethink."
Iran maintains that the group of eight sailors and seven marines from HMS Cornwall were trespassing in Iranian waters, whereas the UK insists they were in Iraqi waters operating under a UN mandate. To the Iranian foreign ministry's assurance that they were being held in humane conditions, Mrs Beckett countered: "If indeed they are being detained in reasonable circumstances, then we can see no reason why they should not have contact with people from the British government."
Mr Blair, meanwhile, rejected suggestions that the capture of the British might be linked to the seizure of five Iranians by US forces in Iraq. The situations, he said, were "completely distinct".