Iran in the Arabian Gulf

Iran has confirmed the arrest of the 15 Royal Navy sailors in the Gulf, while protesting "renewed infiltration of British navy forces into Iranian waters at the Arvand river (in the Gulf)."

The news network Khabar said the arrested servicemen would remain in detention as long as investigations were going on. "The British government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment," the British Defense Ministry said in a statement. "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level," the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in London.

British Navy Commodore Nick Lambert said to CNN there is "absolutely no doubt in my mind" the sailors were in Iraqi waters. The British Navy has permission to patrol Iraqi waters.

"The extent and the definition of territorial waters in this part of the world is very complicated ... We may well find, and I hope we find, that this is a simple misunderstanding at a tactical level," he told CNN. "There hopefully has been a mistake that's been made, and we'll see early clarification and early release of my people."

The incident, involving the Royal Navy's Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall, happened at around 10.30am (0730 GMT) Friday, following a "routine inspection" of a dhow, an Arab sailing boat.

"The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters," the MoD said.

It seems the Iranians believe the British forces were in its territorial waters. Actually, there was such an incident in July 2004, when the Iranian navy seized three British patrol boats. They eight marines were released after four days of negotiations, after the British conceded that their boats might have entered Iranian waters by a navigation error.

Times Online quotes a US official who said the incident occurred just outside the much-disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, dividing Iraq and Iran. Commander Kevin Aandahl, told them the boats which intercepted the British crew members were much larger vessels, belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, a radical force that operates separately from the country’s regular navy, and with whom the US-led task force has particularly delicate relations.

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