Iran today broadcast TV footage of a captured British marine apologising for entering Iranian waters "without permission" — a move that drew indignation from Prime Minister Tony Blair who said Tehran's manipulation of the detainee "doesn't fool anyone."
Letter from Faye Turney
The serviceman, Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers, was shown sitting with another serviceman and the female British sailor Faye Turney against a pink floral curtain. Both men wore camouflage fatigues with a label saying "Royal Navy" on their chests and a small British flag stitched to their left sleeves.
Ms Turney wore a blue jumpsuit and a black headscarf. The three were among 15 British sailors and marines detained by naval units of the Revolutionary Guards on March 23rd while patrolling near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway for smugglers.
"We trespassed without permission," Mr Summers said, adding he knew that Iran had seized British military personnel who strayed into their waters three years ago.
"This happened back in 2004 and our government said that it wouldn't happen again," Summers said on the Arabic-language channel Al-Alam.
"And, again, I deeply apologise for entering your waters." Mr Blair said he could not understand why Iran had aired the clip, the second broadcast of the detained British sailors and marines in three days.
"I really don't know why the Iranian regime keep doing this. I mean all it does is enhance people's sense of disgust. Captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way doesn't fool anyone," Mr Blair said. "What the Iranians have to realise is that if they continue in this way, they will face increasing isolation," he added.
It was not known whether the marine spoke under pressure from his captors, but Summers said in the broadcast "our treatment has been very friendly."
The European Union tonight deplored Iran's seizure of the personnel and called for their immediate release.
EU foreign ministers urged "the immediate and unconditional release" of the sailors in a statement approved at a meeting in the German city of Bremen, an EU official said.
The ministers expressed "unconditional support" for Britain, which says they were captured in Iraqi territorial waters, contrary to Iran's assertion that they strayed into Iranian territory.
Iran released a third letter supposedly from Ms Turney, the only woman in the crew, in which she says she has been "sacrificed" by Britain.
The first two letters attributed to Ms Turney, released on Wednesday and yesterday, said she was sorry for straying into Iranian waters and asked if it wasn't time for Britain to withdraw its troops from Iraq.
"I am writing to you as a British service person who has been sent to Iraq, sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments," the letter today said.
"Whereas we hear and see on the news the way prisoners were treated in Abo-Ghrayb (sic) and other Iraqi jails by British and American personnel, I have received total respect and faced no harm," the letter read.
She said the incident had caused "even more distrust for the people of Iran, and the whole area in the British (sic)".
"I believe that for our countries to move forward we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives," the letter said.
Iranian television earlier showed pictures of three of the British sailors, with one shown apologising for entering Iranian waters.
"The treatment has been very friendly," the sailor said on state-run Al-Alam television. "I deeply apologise for entering your waters."
Britain has demanded the sailors' release, insisting that they were in Iraqi waters at the time they were intercepted. But Iran has demanded that Britain acknowledge that its sailors had violated Iranian waters, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying yesterday that such an admission would help to secure their release.
Mr Mottaki was quoted today as saying that Iran would allow British diplomats to visit the sailors and marines — access that has so far been denied. In an interview with the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat in Riyadh, Mr Mottaki said Iran had accepted the British Embassy's request to meet the sailors "in a consular framework."
One indication that Iran might be seeking to resolve the crisis was the Tehran government's new openness to discussing the issue with third countries.
On Wednesday the government dismissed mediation, saying that Britain had an embassy in Tehran. But last night, the Iranian president discussed the dispute with the Turkish prime minister, and today Mr Mottaki discussed it with his Japanese and Australian counterparts, Iranian state TV reported.
"Iran welcomes any constructive proposal for settling this issue," Mr Mottaki was quoted by the Farsi-language service as saying. "Britain should accept that they have invaded Iranian waters and should offer guarantees that would prevent a repetition" of such an act.
The Al-Alam TV broadcast showed pictures of the light British naval boats at the time of the sailors' seizure. The helicopter flying in the background was British, the Al-Alam newscaster said. In Tehran, about 700 people staged a brief demonstration against the British sailors' actions.
Leaving Tehran University campus after Friday prayers, the protesters walked a few hundred yards down the road chanting "Death to Britain!" and "We condemn the British invasion!"
The demonstrators dispersed of their own accord, making no attempt to go to the British Embassy.
Iran called the UN Security Council statement expressing "grave concern" at the capture of 15 British sailors and marines "unacceptable, unwarranted and unjustifiable" and said the dispute should be settled by the Iranian and British governments.
A press statement issued by Iran's UN Mission late last night accused the Security Council of violating the UN Charter and interfering in "an issue of purely bilateral nature that in no way falls within the purview of the council."