Fresh talks over seized sailors

12 April 2012

A Foreign Office minister has held fresh crisis talks with the Iranian ambassador in a bid to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel.

Lord Triesman spent more than an hour demanding the safe return of the sailors and Royal Marines seized by patrol boats off the coast of Iraq on Friday.

He also used the talks - described as "frank and civil" - to seek assurances about the group's welfare and to allow them to be seen by consular staff.

The Foreign Office would not confirm reports that they had been transferred to the capital Tehran for questioning.

It is the second time the ambassador Rasoul Movahedian has been summoned to explain Iran's actions in what is a potentially dangerous diplomatic crisis.

Iran has accused the Navy of a "blatant aggression into Iranian territorial waters".

But Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and the Ministry of Defence are adamant that the troops were in Iraqi waters at the time.

The latest talks come as the United Nations is set to agree new sanctions against Iran over its refusal to abandon work on producing enriched uranium needed to build a bomb.

It has raised suspicions that the snatching of the sailors and Marines could be part of a bid to put pressure on the UK over the nuclear issue.

The Naval boarding party, from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall, was taken at gunpoint by the Iranians after carrying out a routine search of a large cargo dhow which they suspected of smuggling in the northern Persian Gulf. The group of eight sailors and seven Marines is believed to include at least one woman.

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