British marine ‘apologises’ to Iran
Footage aired of second serviceman apologising for entering Iranian waters.
Published On 30 Mar 2007
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“I don’t know why the Iranian regime keeps doing this. All it does it heightens people’s sense of disgust.
“Captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way, it doesn’t fool anyone.”
Letter published
Summers was shown sitting with another male serviceman and the female British sailor Faye Turney – who was shown issuing a televised apology herself earlier this week – against a pink floral curtain.
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The Iranian embassy in London also released a third letter it said was written by Turney on Friday, in which she said she had been “sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments”.
The letter said: “It is now time to ask our government to make a change to its oppressive behaviour towards other people.”
The embassy also issued a statement criticising the British move to involve the UN in the diplomatic standoff.
“Attempts to engage the Security Council with this matter of purely bilateral nature are completely unacceptable, unwarranted and unjustifiable,” the statement said.
Official visit
Ali Reza Ronaghi, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tehran, says that the broadcast was part of Iran’s attempt to prove that the British personnel were in Iranian waters.
“However,” Ronaghi said, “I’m not sure if the credibility of these pictures will be trusted by a global audience”.
Fifteen British sailors and marines were captured by the Iranian navy on March 23 while patrolling near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
Britain has demanded their release, insisting that they were in Iraqi waters at the time they were intercepted.
Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian foreign minister, said that British officials would be able to visit the military personnel “in a consular framework.”
So far Iran has denied Britain access to the 15.
Apology
The interview was broadcast as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, demanded an apology by the British government, the Fars news agency said.
The Iranian leader made the statement in a telephone conversation with Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, Fars said.
The statement came as Margaret Beckett, the British foreign secretary, said a diplomatic note from Tehran did not contain a way out of the standoff.
“We have been looking for a way out of it for them, for us and particularly for our service personnel from the very beginning.
“I wish I saw any sign that this is what Iran is trying to do.”
The note is the first written communication from Tehran to Britain over the issue.
It appeared to resemble a statement used to resolve a similar standoff in 2004 when Iran seized eight British servicemen and held them for three days.
The note protests against what it describes as an “illegal act” by British personnel and urges the UK government to accept responsibility for it.
European Union foreign ministers said on Friday that they were considering backing London with practical measures to put pressure on Iran to free the 15.
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Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies