Posted by
intelblogman on Wednesday, April 04, 2007 10:17:49 AM
The issue of whose water the sailors were in is very sketchy. "The U.K. has said the Britons' two boats, from the frigate HMS Cornwall, were 1.7 nautical miles (3.1 kilometers) inside Iraqi waters when they were captured in the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Iran says the vessels were half a kilometer inside its territorial waters." -Blomberg News- I personally think one or two kilometers can be interpreted either way. The question is who to trust. I would say Iran is to be more untrustworthy of the two; but very early this morning, Iran in a press conference declared that they would return the sailors as a "gift" to Britain. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was distressed by the EU condemnation of Iran and was pleased by the Iranian Coast Guard. I believe that soon this crisis will be peacefully resolved with the release of the 15 sailors. I would still be wary of Iran though.
(for more on this issue) (for a timeline of the crisis)(for a look at the sources of power in Iran)