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Under Arrest of Islamic Revolution
// Iran captured 15 British servicemen
Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized 15 British naval servicemen in the Persian Gulf on Friday. It might trigger an armed conflict between the West and Iran.
London accused Tehran on Friday of capturing 15 British marines in the Persian Gulf. According to Britain’s Foreign Office, the marines were on Iraqi vessel in Iraq’s territorial waters, accompanying a commercial cargo under U.N. mandate. The vessel was suddenly approached by a ship of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Under the threat of resorting to weapons, Iranians took British marines onto their ship, and sailed away in unknown direction. The information was soon confirmed by the U.S. Naval Command, responsible for the situation in the Persian Gulf.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett summoned Iran's ambassador in London Rasoul Movahedian and demanded that Tehran return the marines and explain the incident. However, the ambassador said he does not know anything about the incident, and went away. Later in the day, Tehran said that the British marines had been arrested for trespassing Iran’s sea border.
The capture of British servicemen is likely to become the chief issue on the today’s agenda of the U.N. Security Council. The today’s session is devoted to making anti-Iran sanctions tougher. Yet, Tehran might get more than just disapproval.
Capture of the citizens of Western countries by Iran had caused military conflicts before. After Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in November 1979, the U.S. Command resorted to a military action to free the hostages. Last summer, the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit by Hezbollah militants triggered a military invasion of Lebanon by Israel.
Now the U.S. and Britain have acquired the long-awaited ground for punishing Tehran.
www.kommersant.ru
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 24, 2007
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