Iran Claims British Sailors “Confessed”
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – The Iranian military questioned 15 detained British soldiers Saturday and said they confessed to illegally entering the country’s territorial waters, as Iran accused Britain of “blatant aggression.”
Britain has demanded the return of the sailors and denied they had strayed into Iranian waters while searching for smugglers off Iraq’s coast.
The eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines were brought to Tehran for questioning, and a a top military official, General Ali Reza Afshar, said they “confessed to illegal entry into Iran’s waters.”
“The said personnel are being interrogated and have confessed to aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran waters,” General Afshar was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency.
The British sailors had just searched a merchant ship when they and their two inflatable boats were intercepted by Iranian vessels Friday at around 10:30 a.m. near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, American and British officials said. The Iranian vessels surrounded them and escorted them away at gunpoint.
The incident came at a time of heightened tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allegations that Iran is arming Shiite Muslim militias in Iraq. Still, Britain was treating it as a mistake rather than a provocation.
