Iran says waiting for new UK stance on captives

Tehran, Apr 1: Iran said it was waiting for Britain to change its behaviour over the detention of 15 British sailors and marines, state television reported today.

Iran captured the 15 Britons on March 23, accusing them of illegally entering the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.

Britain says the sailors were seized in Iraqi waters.

The row, coming at a time of heightened West Asia tensions over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, pushed oil prices last week to six month highs.

''Iran is waiting for a change of behaviour by Britain and a balanced stance by this country over our legal demands,'' state television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying.

He did not give the demands but Iranian officials have said Britain should acknowledge its troops illegally entered Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech yesterday that Britain should have apologised.

Mottaki said Iran was studying a written message sent by British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett that replied to an earlier Iranian diplomatic note on the detentions.

''There are many points in this note that we will look into,'' the Iranian foreign minister said.

US President George W Bush said yesterday that Iran's detention of British personnel was inexcusable and called on Tehran to release them immediately.

''The Iranians must give back the hostages. They're innocent,'' Bush told a news conference.

Using the term ''hostages'' evokes the drama shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans for 444 days. Washington broke relations as a result and they have never been restored.

Iranian officials have accused Britain of stirring up the crisis by raising the issue of the detentions at the United Nations, which has already imposed two sanctions resolutions on Iran since December over its nuclear programme.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to build atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies.

Ahmadinejad accused Britain of not following ''the legal or logical way'' in the dispute over the detentions.

Reuters

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