15 British Troops Detained by Iran for 13 Days Head Home
TEHRAN, Iran — Fifteen British sailors and marines released by Iran after nearly two weeks in captivity flew out of a Tehran airport Thursday aboard a commercial flight bound for London, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.
The 15, whose release was announced Wednesday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left on a British Airways flight from Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport at about 8:30 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT), 30 minutes behind schedule. ...
The crisis had raised oil prices and fears of military conflict in the volatile region. The move to release the sailors suggested that Iran's hardline leadership decided it had shown its strength but did not want to push the standoff too far.
Iran did not get the main thing it sought — a public apology for entering Iranian waters. Britain, which said its crew was in Iraqi waters when seized, insists it never offered a quid pro quo, either, instead relying on quiet diplomacy. ...
They're free, but Britain has been humiliated
London Telegraph
Relief at the freeing of the British sailors and Marines in Iran is tempered with dismay at the humiliation to which they and the country they serve have been subjected. ...
First, there is the apparent incompetence of the Royal Navy in providing insufficient protection to lightly armed inflatables, at a time when relations between Iran and the West were particularly volatile following the imposition of UN sanctions. Second, the seized personnel lost no time in admitting to having trespassed and in apologising for their mistake. The old military practice of giving name, rank and number, and no more, has obviously been abandoned.
Third, the dénouement of this crisis showed Mr Ahmadinejad in the most favourable of lights, whether in "pardoning" the 15, pleading on their behalf with Mr Blair, admonishing this country for separating a mother, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, from her child, or shaking hands and chatting with the newly besuited Servicemen after his press conference.
The Iranian president has rightly been demonised in the West for his call for Israel's destruction and his pursuit of a nuclear weapons programme in defiance of the UN. Yet yesterday he was able to adopt the moral high ground, admonishing the Government while treating graciously those who had been acting on its behalf at the head of the Gulf.
This bodes badly for the West's relations with Teheran over a number of acutely difficult problems during the coming months: ...
