DAMMAM: The Border Guard said yesterday that Iran released five Saudi fishing boats and their Indian crews that had strayed into Iranian waters.
The move followed the freeing earlier this week by the Kingdom of two Iranian vessels that had entered the Kingdom’s territorial waters.
“Iran on Thursday released five vessels that were held for two weeks after they entered Iranian territorial waters,” said Gen. Abdurrahman Al-Brahim, head of the Border Guard in the Eastern Province. The boats returned to port in Darin, on the Arabian Gulf coast, and the 22 Indian crew members were questioned about how the incident occurred, he said.
Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday that it had released two Iranian fishing boats that strayed into its waters and said it hoped the gesture would lead Iran to do the same with the Saudi vessels.
Iranian media said on July 3 that Tehran had seized the fishing boats in territorial waters near its first nuclear power plant that is currently under construction in Bushehr.
In June 2007, Iran arrested the crew of three Emirati boats it had seized for illegal entry and fishing in its territorial waters.
In March 2007, Iranian naval forces seized 15 British sailors and marines in the Gulf, claiming they had entered Iran’s territorial waters but Britain insisted they had been engaged in anti-smuggling operations in Iraqi waters. The group was freed after two weeks.
