grrrrr! why can't british sailors stop violating other nations territorial borders?

Ok give me your address and I will send the police round to pick it up. bound to be stolen and if not then you must be selling gold-bullion which is illegal ha ha ha !

 

I think he was being intentionally and ironically provocative....

 

1. Each country should have some degree of flexibility, but that's forgetting the fact that the Iranian regime is full of hard-line crazies, the Iran-Iraq war put negotiations firmly off the agenda and the Western powers are interested in domination not (2) negotiation.
3. Iran is quite possibly lying. I didn't know they'd changed their stated co-ordinates, though it's not particularly surprising....

 

It is the West's business, unfortunately, as Iraq is not an independent nation state in anything other than name....

 

Lines!! who what where and when.

The Iranians have no right to go and capture a group of british sailors unless they want to be antagonistic which is obviously all they want to be. The sailors were searching a vessel for shipments of firearms to the Iraq conflict what has that got to do with Iran ?

 

Iran's a regional power and has legitimate security fears of its own. British and American forces are now stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, which both share sizeable borders with Iran. Paranoia on their part is entirely understandable given American foreign policy of late. You could say they have as much 'right' to be there as coalition forces....

 

Yes, imagine if Iran had succesfully invaded and annexed Wales and were doing armed military inspections of merchant shipping in the Bristol channel. If the Iranians were suspected of doing this in British territory I don't imagine 'we' would be too happy about it.

 

Paint it anyway you want it to look gents but the "Right" still don't exist.

 

Well, *if* the soldiers *were* in Iranian territory (and that's a very big if), then Iran are perfectly within their rights to detain them. If the Iranian military started doing armed searches in the Bristol channel I don't doubt Britain would detain them quicker than you can say Khomeini...

 

Well it seems diplomacy has worked and the sailors will be released:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6525905.stm

Looks like we didn't have to nuke them after all, huh?

 

Damn! In the words of that nutter on Radio 4 on the weekend, "what's the point of having them if you don't ever use them?"

 

I expect there were a lot of behind the scenes deals. I don't think the release of five Iranian diplomats who were detained without trial in Iraq is a coincidence. There's probably more we don't know about and won't know about. Still, whatever deals were made, I can't see them being worse than nuking Iran!

 

I agree. The release of the Iranian diplomats is probably the sole reason and deal breaker. I wouldn't be surprised if the diplomats were the reason the British soldiers were arrested as I guess no deal would have been made if they were American. The situation would be really critical by now if they had been. When Blair made his statement today about the soldiers release he had a look of defeat, he even talked of no negotiations; maybe he had been advised like he was about weapons of mass destruction. Well done to British aristocratic diplomacy, didn't think I'd say that.

 

hopefully the brits have learned their lesson and will stop encroaching in other nation's territiorial waters... i sometime wonder if here in amerca due to the few anglophiles we have here, that britain will invade and claim sovereignty as they did in the falklands

 

By rights we should really, and reinstate power to an absolute monarchy while we're at it! Cry God for England, Harry and St George!

 

Finally Iran have decided to release the hostages. I think the forthcoming months, parliament should repair its relationship with Iran. but sanctions should be brought simply for violation of the UN resolution. I call for two months trade with the UK suspended.

 

You ARE joking, right?

...Seriously.

 

And I thought the politicians were mad....

 

I'm sorry John, but since you just said that, I honestly can't take you seriously on terms of politics anymore...That comment is just baffling, and contains no logic whatsoever.

 

To be honest, I think we should just let sleeping dogs lie with this. It seems it was just a big misunderstanding.