TEHRAN, 25 June 2004 — Eight British servicemen were freed yesterday after three nights in the hands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, ending a diplomatic wrangle that had threatened to inflame tensions over Britain’s presence in Iraq.
British diplomats took custody of the eight naval personnel and flew with them to Tehran from the Gulf area where they were detained Monday after straying into Iranian waters.
The servicemen were shown blindfolded on Iranian television shortly after their capture, but as diplomacy progressed had also been treated by their captors to chopped meat stew.
Diplomatic relations had already soured over British pressure on Iran’s atomic program but British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted yesterday he still backed a policy of engagement with Iran, despite the arrests.
“I am in no doubt at all that our policy of engagements with the government of Iran... is the best approach,” Straw said in London, shortly after the eight were released.
“We have worked hard on diplomatic relations with Iran... Sometimes the relationships are complicated.”
Diplomats had been locked in negotiations deep into Wednesday night, deliberating over the return of the men’s equipment. Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told state television the equipment would be returned.
The eight were held in the sweltering province of Khuzestan in Iran’s oil-rich southwest after they were seized on the Shatt Al-Arab waterway along the Iran-Iraq border.
Diplomats visited them Wednesday and said they had been well looked after. Television showed them lounging on beds with bright quilts and the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Revolutionary Guards saying they had given their guests a traditional diced-meat stew.
