BRITAIN:British prime minister Tony Blair acknowledged yesterday it was a bad idea to let sailors held in Iran sell their stories to newspapers, but appeared unlikely to sack top officials over the affair.
After days of silence, defence secretary Des Browne accepted responsibility for the decision to relax rules on service members profiting from interviews to allow sailors captured by Iran to sell their stories.
Mr Blair, in his first comments on an affair that has overshadowed the freeing of 15 sailors and marines after nearly two weeks in Iran, said navy chiefs were only trying to manage media hype when they agreed to let them accept payment.
"The navy were trying to deal with a wholly exceptional situation in which the families were being pursued by the media to sell their stories," Mr Blair said.
"The navy took the view that it would be better to try to manage the situation rather than let it happen. Now, with hindsight, was that a good idea? No," he said.
"Do I believe it will happen again? No. But were people acting completely in good faith and honourably so far as the navy was concerned? Yes they were. Now I think we have had days of this already and it's time to move on." - (Reuters)