TEHRAN, 4 April 2007 — An Iranian diplomat seized two months ago in Iraq by uniformed gunmen has been freed — a move that suggested progress yesterday in British efforts to win the freedom of 15 sailors and Marines held by Iran.
Neither British, US nor Iraqi officials would say if the release of diplomat Jalal Sharafi was linked directly to Britain’s efforts to gain its sailors’ release. Britain has publicly sworn not to negotiate. And the Iranian news agency Fars issued a new picture of British sailors, an apparent breach of the understanding that no more photographs would be published.
But the moves outside Tehran seemed certain to increase the likelihood that Iran, which has been angered by its diplomats’ detention, would look more favorably on releasing some of the captured Britons.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters in Scotland that the next two days would be “fairly critical” to resolving the standoff over the navy crew, although he gave no details what he meant.
In Washington, President George W. Bush said he supported British efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully. “The seizure of the sailors is indefensible by the Iranians,” Bush told reporters. “I support the Blair government’s attempts to solve this issue peacefully, so we’re in close consultation with the British government. I also strongly support the prime minister’s declaration that there should be no quid pro quos when it comes to the hostages,” Bush said.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi official said his government had exerted pressure on those holding the Iranian diplomat in order to gain his release. Sharafi was released Monday and returned to Tehran yesterday. Iran’s Fars news agency said Sharafi was welcomed at Tehran airport by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and other ministry officials.
The Iraqi official would not say who had held the diplomat.
Sharafi was seized Feb. 4 by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shiite-controlled district of Baghdad. Iran contended he had been seized by an Iraqi military unit commanded by US military forces — a charge repeated by several Iraqi Shiite lawmakers.
But US authorities denied any role in his disappearance.
Sharafi was abducted a month after American authorities arrested five Iranians in northern Iraq. One of those captives was described by the US as a senior officer of the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Two days after that raid, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush had approved the strategy of raiding Iranian targets in Iraq as part of efforts to confront Tehran’s government.
Yesterday, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry official said Baghdad also was “intensively” seeking the release of the five Iranians in order to help win freedom for the 15 Britons.
Both Iran and Britain have discounted talk of a prisoner exchange. But the release of Sharafi and efforts to free the other five Iranians suggested that the parameters of a deal might be taking shape.
