UK sailors may face Iran trial: IRNA

Tehran, March 31: The 15 British sailors and marines seized in the Gulf eight days ago may face trial and legal moves have been launched, Iran's ambassador to Moscow was quoted as telling a Russian television station.

''It is possible that the British soldiers who entered into Iranian waters will go on trial for taking this illegal action,'' Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari told Russian television channel Vesti-24, according to Iran's IRNA news agency.

''The legal phase concerning these British soldiers has started and if charges against them are proven, they will be punished,'' said Ansari. IRNA said he made the comments yesterday evening. It gave no further details.

Iran has close diplomatic and commercial ties with Russia.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards detained the British navy personnel on March 23 in the Gulf. The seizure triggered a diplomatic crisis at a time of international tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions and sent oil prices to six-month highs.

Iran says they had illegally crossed into its territory, but Britain maintains they were in Iraqi waters and has demanded their immediate release.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on March 25 Iran was considering charging them with illegally entering its waters, but Ansari appeared to suggest the process had started but did not specify what the legal moves were.

Iranian officials in Tehran were not immediately available for comment on his reported remarks.

Yesterday, Iran displayed three of the detained Britons on television and released a letter from one saying she was being held because of ''oppressive'' British and US behaviour in Iraq.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the footage increased people's disgust at their treatment of the sailors and marines and risked isolating Tehran further, but he urged calm and patience over the crisis.

London has been pushing for international condemnation but failed to get the UN Security Council to pass a strongly worded draft statement. Instead, it expressed ''grave concern''.

In London yesterday, Iran's embassy said both governments were working together closely to find a mutually acceptable solution and that it could be settled bilaterally.

EU foreign ministers voiced solidarity with Britain at a summit in Germany and deplored the seizure but stopped short of suspending normal business with Tehran as London has done.

British forces have been deployed in southern Iraq since joining the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. Britain and the United States accuse Iran of allowing sophisticated weapons used to target their forces to be brought into Iraq.

Reuters

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