Iran: Detained British troops do not need to go to trial

There are no reviewed versions of this page, so it may not have been checked for adherence to standards.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Iran has said that the 15 British troops detained on March 23 do not have to go through any trial, according to Ali Larijani, the highest ranking diplomat for Iran who also said that a delegation should review the case against the sailors and marines.

"We are not interested in this issue getting more complicated. Our interest is in solving this problem as soon as possible. This issue can be resolved, and there is no need for any trial. There should be a delegation to review the case ... to clarify whether they have been in our territorial waters or not," said Larijani who hopes that the situation between Britain and Iran can be solved bilaterally.

Ali Larijani while lecturing at Sharif University of Technology for his presidential campaign.

Britain has stated that they are currently studying Larijani's comments and will respond to them tomorrow.

"There remain some differences between us, but we can confirm we share his preference for early bilateral discussions to find a diplomatic solution to this problem. We will be following this up with the Iranian authorities tomorrow, given our shared desire to make early progress," said a spokesperson for the British Foreign Office.

On March 23, the fifteen sailors and marines from the frigate HMS Cornwall were inspecting a ship, in what the UK identified as Iraqi waters, when they were surrounded by Iranian gunboats and taken into custody. Iran claims the UK forces were in Iranian waters, and are still detaining the fifteen.

Sources

Edmund Blair. "Iran says no need for trial of British sailors" — Malaysia Star, April 3, 2007
Julian Borger and Ian Black. "Iran outlines conditions for release of UK sailors" — Guardian Unlimited, April 3, 2007

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License