February 11, 2009 5:09 PM
- Text
Standoff In The Persian Gulf
(CBS/AP)
Naval forces of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards seized 15 British sailors and marines at gunpoint Friday in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf, U.S. and British officials said. The provocative move comes during heightened tensions between the West and Iran.
Iran insisted the British service members were seized because they had entered Iranian territory and were held "for further investigation," according to Iranian state television.
U.S. and British officials said the incident occurred during a routine inspection of a merchant ship near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, which flows between the two countries and empties into the Gulf. The inspections were part of an ongoing operation to intercept smugglers, insurgents and terrorists, and to protect Iraqi oil terminals, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.
The inspection went without a hitch and the British inflatable rafts that the service members use were on the way back to their mother ship when six Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval vessels surrounded them, Pizzey reports.
A U.S. Navy official in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl, said Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible and had broadcast a brief radio message saying the British had not been harmed.
In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office and afterward, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said he "was left in no doubt that we want them back."
Iranian television quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying that Tehran had also summoned the top British diplomat in Tehran to protest the "illegal entry" into Iranian waters.
"This is not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran's territorial waters," the official was quoted as saying.
Britain's Defense Ministry said the Royal Navy personnel — assigned to the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall — were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by the Iranian vessels.
The British sailors were part of a task force that protects Iraqi oil terminals and maintains security in Iraqi waters under authority of the U.N. Security Council.
As CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports, U.S. and British Navies routinely stop and search suspicious vessels in the Gulf, sometimes under the noses of the Iranian Navy, which jealously guards a disputed boundary line in the channel leading to the Iraqi port of Basra.
The Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said the frigate lost communication with the boarding party, but a helicopter crew saw the Iranian vessels approach.
"I've got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians and my immediate concern is their safety," Lambert told British Broadcasting Corp. television. Lambert said he hoped it was a "simple mistake" over territorial waters.
In Washington, White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration is monitoring the situation.
"The British government is demanding the immediate safe return of the people and equipment and we are keeping watch on the situation," Snow said.
CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk said: "Military confrontation with Iran in the Gulf is everyone's nightmare scenario. Diplomatic efforts at the U.N. and with the Baghdad conference, which included Iran, were not very successful efforts to keep a cap on Iran's defiance."
The incident occurred as the U.N. Security Council debates further sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, and amid U.S. allegations that Iran is arming Shiite militias in Iraq.
Hours before the seizure, British Lt. Col. Justin Maciejewski told BBC Radio 4 Today in Basra that the Iranians were arming and funding insurgents attacking British troops in southern Iraq.
The U.S. military has leveled similar charges against the Iranians, insisting they are providing weapons including sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill Americans. Iran has denied the allegations.
Iran insisted the British service members were seized because they had entered Iranian territory and were held "for further investigation," according to Iranian state television.
U.S. and British officials said the incident occurred during a routine inspection of a merchant ship near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, which flows between the two countries and empties into the Gulf. The inspections were part of an ongoing operation to intercept smugglers, insurgents and terrorists, and to protect Iraqi oil terminals, CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports.
The inspection went without a hitch and the British inflatable rafts that the service members use were on the way back to their mother ship when six Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval vessels surrounded them, Pizzey reports.
A U.S. Navy official in Bahrain, Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl, said Iran's Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible and had broadcast a brief radio message saying the British had not been harmed.
In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office and afterward, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said he "was left in no doubt that we want them back."
Iranian television quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying that Tehran had also summoned the top British diplomat in Tehran to protest the "illegal entry" into Iranian waters.
"This is not the first time that British military personnel during the occupation of Iraq have entered illegally into Iran's territorial waters," the official was quoted as saying.
(CBS)
The British sailors were part of a task force that protects Iraqi oil terminals and maintains security in Iraqi waters under authority of the U.N. Security Council.
As CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports, U.S. and British Navies routinely stop and search suspicious vessels in the Gulf, sometimes under the noses of the Iranian Navy, which jealously guards a disputed boundary line in the channel leading to the Iraqi port of Basra.
The Cornwall's commander, Commodore Nick Lambert, said the frigate lost communication with the boarding party, but a helicopter crew saw the Iranian vessels approach.
"I've got 15 sailors and marines who have been arrested by the Iranians and my immediate concern is their safety," Lambert told British Broadcasting Corp. television. Lambert said he hoped it was a "simple mistake" over territorial waters.
In Washington, White House press secretary Tony Snow said the Bush administration is monitoring the situation.
"The British government is demanding the immediate safe return of the people and equipment and we are keeping watch on the situation," Snow said.
CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk said: "Military confrontation with Iran in the Gulf is everyone's nightmare scenario. Diplomatic efforts at the U.N. and with the Baghdad conference, which included Iran, were not very successful efforts to keep a cap on Iran's defiance."
The incident occurred as the U.N. Security Council debates further sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, and amid U.S. allegations that Iran is arming Shiite militias in Iraq.
Hours before the seizure, British Lt. Col. Justin Maciejewski told BBC Radio 4 Today in Basra that the Iranians were arming and funding insurgents attacking British troops in southern Iraq.
The U.S. military has leveled similar charges against the Iranians, insisting they are providing weapons including sophisticated roadside bombs used to kill Americans. Iran has denied the allegations.
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