TEHRAN, 5 April 2007 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad freed 15 British sailors and Marines yesterday, offering a “gift” to Britain that ended a 13-day crisis. In a surprise announcement, Ahmadinejad said he was willing to forgive the sailors even though Britain was not “brave enough” to admit it had made a mistake and strayed into Iran’s territory.
“Influenced by the Prophet’s teachings (Iran) forgives these 15 people and gives their freedom to the British people as a gift,” Ahmadinejad said toward the end of a 90-minute news conference broadcast around the world.
The dispute centered on where the Britons were when they were seized. Britain says they were in Iraqi waters on a routine UN mission. Tehran says they had strayed into its territory.
Ahmadinejad later met several of the sailors, who were dressed in smart suits, at his office in Tehran and shook hands with them before exchanging a few words through a translator.
“We are very grateful for your forgiveness,” one of the British sailors said. “I would like to thank yourself and the Iranian people.”
Ahmadinejad said the captives would be released immediately and they were expected to be taken to the British Embassy in Tehran. An Iranian official source said they would leave by plane today.
“I ask Blair not to punish the soldiers with the charge of accepting and telling the truth,” Ahmadinejad said in reference to taped “confessions” from the sailors and Marines saying they had entered Iranian waters.
Britain welcomed Ahmadinejad’s statement and said it was seeking details on the “method and timing” of the release.
The White House said President George W. Bush also welcomed the statement. The European Union, which said it stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” with London in the standoff, also said it welcomed the news.
Before his announcement Ahmadinejad awarded medals to the naval commanders who captured the sailors in the northern Gulf on March 23 and criticized Britain.
Iranian and British officials had sought to moderate their positions over the past 48 hours to find a diplomatic solution to a crisis that had added to tension over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
With the world’s spotlight on him, Ahmadinejad also said he was willing to consider re-establishing ties with the United States if the country “changed its behavior,” but didn’t expand on the statement. He again defended his country’s right to develop nuclear technology and threatened to retaliate against sanctions imposed on Iranian banks.
The United States said that if Iran wanted to change its relationship with Washington it would have to suspend uranium enrichment, part of its nuclear program.
Iran’s official news agency said British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s adviser Nigel Sheinwald had spoken directly to Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Tuesday night, breaking high-level diplomatic ice.
Ahmadinejad said there was no link between the sailors’ release and the release in Baghdad on Monday of an Iranian diplomat who was seized by gunmen wearing Iraqi military uniforms in January.
Iranian state media also said five Iranian officials captured by US forces in northern Iraq in January and accused of seeking to stir trouble were expected to receive their first visit by an Iranian diplomat.
Asked if the five Iranians should be freed to favor a possible release of the Britons, Bush insisted there should be no “quid pro quos.”
