UK writes to Iran over troops

Al Jazeera and agencies

Britain has responded by diplomatic note to Iran’s capture of 15 British naval personnel last week in the Gulf, Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary, has said.

“We had a diplomatic note and we have made our response,” she said on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Bremen, Germany, on Saturday.

“I think everyone regrets that this position has arisen. What we want is a way out of it, we want it peacefully and we want it as soon as possible,” Beckett said.

“We would like to be told where our personnel are, we would like to be given access to them, but we want it resolved,” she added.

Apology demanded

Also on Saturday, Iran’s president said the British governnment was not following “the legal and logical way” over the case.

“After the arrest of these people, the British government, instead of apologising and expressing regret, over the action taken, started to claim that we are in their debt and shouted in different international councils,” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the state radio report.

“But this is not the legal and logical way for this issue.”

A diplomatic note from Iran to Britain released on Friday condemned the “illegal act” by British naval staff and called on the UK to accept responsibilty for the standoff.

Also on Friday, Iranian television broadcast footage of three of the British naval personnel in which one of them apologised for entering Iranian waters without permission.

Britain has insisted that the naval personnel were in Iraqi waters when they were detained.

Trial denied

Iran’s ambassador to Moscow has meanwhile denied saying that the British naval personnel held by Iran may face trial for illegally entering Iranian waters.

Gholam Reza Ansari said a Russian television station had mistranslated his remarks.

“The network has made a mistake in translating the comments about detained British personnel and has reported the possibility of their trial,” he told the Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Ansari was earlier quoted by IRNA as telling Russian television channel Vesti-24: “It is possible that the British soldiers who entered into Iranian waters will go on trial.”

“The legal phase concerning these British soldiers has started and if charges against them are proven, they will be punished,” he said.

Mediation offer

Terry White, a former British hostage who was held captive for almost five years in Lebanon from 1987 to 1991, has offered to mediate in resolving the crisis.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, White expressed his readiness to visit Iran to persuade Tehran free the seized personnel.

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