Pentagon: 15 British troops seized by Iranians

[ronjhe]

ja het was wel te verwachten dat de regering Bush in dit incident een aanleiding zou proberen te zoeken voor een verdere escalatie van het conflict. Als dit bericht tenminste klopt. Gelukkig lijken de Britten de "Amerikaanse" aanpak weer te hebben losgelaten en te zijn teruggekeerd naar hun eigen beproefte methodes...

[Ros]

onder meer gevechtsvliegtuigen laag over militaire bases in Iran te laten scheren

En als er dan zo'n kist naar beneden was gehaald door de Iraniers zou dat waaschijnlijk als agressieve daad worden gezien met als gevolg...........Typisch weer een Amerikaanse wijze om met een probleem om te gaan. Dit had zeker de dood geweest voor de 15 britse militairen.

Londen liet Washington weten dat de VS de situatie zouden kalmeren door zich buiten het conflict te houden.

De Britten vroegen de VS ook om een militaire oefening in de Perzische Golf, waaraan veertig marineschepen meedoen, af te zwakken.

Juiste beslissing van de Engelsen. Uiteindelijk zijn zij er in geslaagd om de situatie op een diplomatieke wijze op te lossen, zonder een schot te lossen.

[Ap]

Amerikanen boden 'agressieve' patrouilles boven Iran aan
Uitgegeven: 7 april 2007 07:33
Laatst gewijzigd: 7 april 2007 07:37

LONDEN - De Verenigde Staten hebben de Britse regering aangeboden militair op te treden tegen Iran in verband met de arrestatie van vijftien marinemensen. Zij stelden onder meer voor om 'agressief' te patrouilleren boven posities van de Iraanse Revolutionaire Garde, meldde dagblad The Guardian zaterdag.

In de eerste dagen van de hoogoplopende diplomatieke crisis, toen Teheran de kaken stijf op elkaar hield over het wel en wee van de matrozen en mariniers, boden functionarissen van het Pentagon de Britten meerdere opties aan.

Topgeheim

De precieze lijst is topgeheim, maar het aanbod omvatte volgens de Britse krant, die geen bronnen noemt, onder meer gevechtsvliegtuigen laag over militaire bases in Iran te laten scheren.

De Britten wezen de Amerikaanse hulp evenwel van de hand. Londen liet Washington weten dat de VS de situatie zouden kalmeren door zich buiten het conflict te houden.

De Britten vroegen de VS ook om een militaire oefening in de Perzische Golf, waaraan veertig marineschepen meedoen, af te zwakken. De afgelopen weken arriveerde juist een tweede marine-eenheid in de regio. Die had de Amerikaanse president Bush naar de Golf gestuurd om de druk op Iran op te voeren.

De VS en Iran zijn al aartsrivalen sinds de islamitische revolutie van 1979, waarbij 52 Amerikanen in de ambassade in Teheran 444 dagen in gijzeling werden gehouden. De relatie is de laatste jaren verder verslechterd. Washington stelt dat Iran in het geheim kernwapens probeert te bouwen en de Iraakse opstand steunt.

De Amerikanen arresteerden in verband daarmee dit voorjaar vijf Iraanse diplomaten in Irak.

) ANP

www.nu.nl

[Lex]

Maar misschien heb jij nieuws dat anderen, de Amerikanen bijvoorbeeld, die boardingtaak nu (weer) tijdelijk hebben overgenomen. Of de Irakezen zelf.

Nee, ik heb daar geen nieuws over. 

[ronjhe]

Misschien zijn er wel fouten gemaakt aan Britse zijde en wacht men op de uitkomsten van het onderzoek.

En dan laat men dus mogelijke wapentransporten maar gewoon door en binnenkomen? Nee sorry, hoe zeer ik je punt ook onderken, ik vind dit toch wel wat vreemd. Ze stellen wel dat dit geen oorlogsmissie was, maar bij mijn weten is het in Irak nog steeds (burger) oorlog en staat een nieuwe oorlog ogenschijnlijk voor de deur. Onder die omstandigheden ga je de vijand geen window of opportunity geven om wapens e.d. binnen te brengen. Zeker niet zo aangekondigd in het nieuws. Of je wilt ten kosten van alles voorkomen dat zo'n incident nog eens gebeurd. En dan vraag ik mij dus af wat die noodzaak daarvoor dan verklaard. En tja mijn vermoeden op die vraag zal jou niet verbazen Maar misschien heb jij nieuws dat anderen, de Amerikanen bijvoorbeeld, die boardingtaak nu (weer) tijdelijk hebben overgenomen. Of de Irakezen zelf.

[Lex]

Misschien zijn er wel fouten gemaakt aan Britse zijde en wacht men op de uitkomsten van het onderzoek.

[ronjhe]

Ik ben blij dat ze weer vrij zijn en terug in de UK. Maar de verklaring geeft me ook het gevoel alsof er het nodige is geinstrueerd om de beeldvorming te beinvloeden. Meewerken onder druk is namelijk nog wel wat anders dan lachend en vrolijk op de film worden gezet. Maar goed. Het was ook geen picknick waar de heren en dame aan deelnamen...

En het staken van de boarding operations vind ik merkwaardig in dit kader. Want lijkt een onwenselijke concessie. En lijkt er meer op om gezien de toenemende spanningen in de regio elke kans op nieuwe gevangennames te voorkomen. Want dat zou verdere acties maar kunnen compliceren. Waarschijnlijk is men ook elders niet blij geweest met dit incident.

[Lex]

Britain Suspends Boarding Ops in Gulf After Iran Dispute

Britain has suspended boarding operations in the Persian Gulf and is reviewing its rules of engagement after a dispute with Iran over the capture of 15 British naval personnel, a top officer said April 6.
First Sea Lord, Adm. Sir Jonathon Band said an official inquiry would look at the rules of engagement, intelligence gathering, equipment and procedures to prevent any repeat of the March 23 capture of eight sailors and seven marines who returned to emotional reunions in Britain on April 5, after 13 days in detention.
Until a comprehensive review is complete, the Royal Navy has suspended all boarding operations in the area of the kind that the Britons were carrying out when seized, he added.
Addressing a press conference, meanwhile, Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air and Navy Lt. Felix Carman said they had been isolated from each other, handled roughly and told they faced seven years imprisonment if they failed to confess to being in Iranian waters.
They were at times blindfolded and handcuffed when lined up against a wall and their Iranian captors used mind games in a bid to get information and confessions.
There was "constant psychological pressure," Carman said as he read out a joint statement on behalf of the eight sailors and seven marines captured in the northern Gulf on March 23.
"Fighting back was simply not an option," Air said of their capture. "If we had, some of us would not be here today, of that I am completely sure."
Air, 25, was one of the captive servicemen shown on Iraqi television admitting that the group had trespassed into Iranian waters.
He rescinded that statement April 6, stressing that they were "well inside" Iraqi waters when captured.
The only woman in the group, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, was separated from the men straight away and later told that the others had gone home four days earlier.
"She coped admirably," Air said. Turney was not present at the press briefing at the Royal Marine Base Chivenor in Devon, southwest England, where the 15 spent their first night of freedom after being reunited with their families and friends.
Carman, 26, said of the interrogation techniques used by their Iranian captors: "The questions were aggressive and the handling a bit rough," he said.
Prior to the press briefing, Band praised the sailors' bravery and dignity during their detention and rejected suggestions that they should not have made "confessions" about breaching Iran's territorial waters.
"They weren't on combat operations. They weren't like people shot down in Tornados in the [1991] Gulf War. I don't think there is any doubt from the statements some of them made, and certainly the letters, that they were under a certain element of psychological pressure."
The 15 are being debriefed and undergoing medical examinations.
A military inquiry was underway to determine how they came to be captured as they conducted what Britain said were routine anti-smuggling operations near the Shatt al-Arab waterway dividing Iraq and Iran.
One of the 15, Royal Marine Capt. Chris Air, told Sky News television in an interview recorded a week before their detention that British crews did gather intelligence on Iranian activities in the Gulf area.
In his BBC interview, Band dismissed suggestions that the 15 had surrendered too easily and that they should have fought back against their captors.
"I think our people have reacted extremely well in some very difficult circumstances," he said, adding that the decision to board and search a merchant ship that led to their seizure was "absolutely proper".
"I think they acted with considerable dignity and a lot of courage," he added.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, LONDON
Posted 04/06/07 11:12

[ronjhe]

Gevangen Britten verzamelden inlichtingen
Uitgegeven: 6 april 2007 05:48
Laatst gewijzigd: 6 april 2007 06:01

LONDEN - De kapitein die leiding gaf aan de vijftien Britse militairen die twee weken geleden door Iran werden gearresteerd, heeft verteld dat zij inlichtingen verzamelden over Iran. Kapitein Chris Air stelde dat vijf dagen voor zijn arrestatie tegenover Sky News.

De Britse nieuwszender besloot het interview in verband met de veiligheid van de gevangen matrozen en mariniers niet eerder uit te zenden.

Een voormalige Iraanse diplomaat stelde in een reactie dat als Iran die informatie had gehad, zij het zouden hebben gebruikt "als rechtvaardiging om de mariniers gevangen te nemen en te berechten".

Wapensmokkel

De militairen patrouilleerden in de smalle waterweg voor de kust van Irak, dichtbij Iraanse wateren, waar zij visserschepen controleerden op wapensmokkel en hulp aan terrorisme. "Ten tweede verzamelen we inlichtingen. Als ze enige informatie hebben, omdat ze hier dagen achtereen zijn, kunnen ze dat met ons delen", aldus Air, doelend op de vissers.

Hij stelde dat Iraanse militairen in het verleden meerdere vissersschepen hadden overvallen. "Het is goed om inlichtingen te verzamelen over de Iraniërs."

Veiligheid

De Britse minister van Defensie Des Browne liet de zender weten dat het verkrijgen van informatie niets uitzonderlijks is. "Dat is nodig voor de veiligheid van onze mensen", aldus de bewindsman.

Bevoegdheid

Het VN-mandaat waaronder de Britten in de Golf opereren, gaf Air en zijn medewerkers volgens Browne "duidelijk" bevoegdheid om inlichtingen te verzamelen over de omgeving waarin zij werkten.
http://nu.nl/news/1034039/21/Gevangen_Britten_verzamelden_inlichtingen.html

[ARM-WAP]

Captured navy crew land in London
The 15 Royal Navy sailors and marines held captive in Iran for almost two weeks have returned to the UK.
The crew, freed by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a "gift" to the British people on Wednesday, touched down at Heathrow Airport at 1200 BST.

They are expected to be flown to a Royal Marines base in Devon where they will be reunited with their families.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was "glad" the crew had been returned "safe and unharmed".

In a statement given outside Downing Street as the plane touched down, Mr Blair said there had been "no deal" with the Iranians to secure their release.

He contrasted the rejoicing at the return of the crew with the "sober and ugly reality" of the deaths of four British soldiers in Iraq in what he described as a "terrorist act".

He repeated allegations that there were "elements of the Iranian regime" that were "financing, arming and supporting terrorism in Iraq".

De-briefing

The navy personnel arrived at Tehran Airport early on Thursday in a fleet of official cars after 13 days in Iranian custody.

At about 0800 local time (0530 BST) they boarded a British Airways flight bound for London.


CAPTURED NAVY PERSONNEL
Chris Air, 25, from Altrincham in Cheshire
Mark Banks, 24, of Lowestoft, Suffolk
Paul Barton, of Southport, Merseyside
Arthur Batchelor, 20, of Plymouth
Felix Carman, 26, of Swansea
Christopher Coe, 31, of Huddersfield
Dean Harris, 24, of Carmarthen, west Wales
Andrew Henderson
Simon Massey
Danny Masterton, 26, of Muirkirk, Ayrshire
Adam Sperry, 22, of Wigston, near Leicester
Nathan Summers, of Hayle, Cornwall
Joe Tindell, 21, of south London
Faye Turney, 26, originally from Shropshire
One captive remains unnamed


They will now be flown by helicopter to Royal Marines Barracks Chivenor in Devon, where they will be de-briefed and given thorough health checks.

BBC correspondents say military chiefs will be keen to assess the physical and psychological impact captivity has had on the crew before reuniting them with their families.

Iranian television has broadcast pictures and statements from several members of the crew, including the only woman in the group, Leading Seaman Faye Turney.

Before they left Tehran, she was shown saying: "Apologies for our actions, but many thanks for having it in your hearts to let us go free."

Commentators are divided over whether the release represents a diplomatic triumph for the UK, or a public relations coup for the Iranian president.

The 15 service personnel had disembarked from HMS Cornwall in the Gulf when they were detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard on 23 March.

The Iranians accused the crew of straying into its waters, although the British have insisted throughout that they were in Iraqi territory.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/6529193.stm

Published: 2007/04/05 11:18:07 GMT

© BBC MMVII

[ronjhe]

Goed nieuws voor de militairen. Vanaf donderdag is dit "obstakel" dus weggenomen. Opvallend dat Blair zich tot het Iraanse volk richt en niet tot de leiders... Waar zagen we dat eerder 

[ronjhe]

Gegijzelde Britten in Iran vrijgelaten

Van onze verslaggevers

AMSTERDAM - De vijftien Britse matrozen en mariniers die in Iran werden vastgehouden zijn vrijgelaten. Dat meldt de BBC.

De Britten werden op 23 maart door het Iraanse leger gearresteerd omdat ze zich wederrechtelijk in Iraanse territoriale wateren zouden hebben begeven. Hun vrijlating door 'presidentiële gratie' is een 'cadeau' van Iran aan het Britse volk, aldus de Iraanse president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad op een persconferentie in Teheran.

De Britse regering reageerde met blijdschap op de verrassende mededeling van Ahmadinejad dat de Britten woensdag zouden vrijkomen. Een broer van een van de gedetineerde Britten sprak van 'fantastisch nieuws!'

Ahmadinejad herhaalde dat Groot-Brittanië de Iraanse wateren was binnengevallen. Tijdens de bijeenkomst spelde hij de commandanten van het Iraanse leger die de Britse mariniers hadden opgepakt medailles op. Hij lardeerde de persconferentie die het Iraanse Nieuwjaar moest markeren met tal van citaten uit de Koran.

Voorwendsel
Ook weidde de Iraanse president lang uit over de moderne geschiedenis van het Midden-Oosten. Hij viel het Westen aan en veroordeelde de landen die achter de 'ellende en vernietiging' van de wereld zouden zitten. Ook hekelde hij het 'valse voorwendsel' om Irak binnen te vallen': massavernietigingswapens. Die bleken er niet te zijn en toch blijven de VS Irak bezetten, aldus de president.

Voor hun vrijlating sprak Ahmadinejad woensdag met enkele van de vijftien Britse marinemensen die bijna twee weken in Iran werden vastgehouden. De ontmoeting volgde na de bekendmaking door de president dat de Britten naar huis mogen.

Vakantie
Een lachende Ahmadinejad zei tegen een Brit: 'Hoe gaat het? Dus je had een verplichte vakantie'. De Britse marineman antwoordde 'dankbaar te zijn voor de vergevingsgezindheid'. De president wenste hem succes voor de toekomst, zo bleek uit televisiebeelden van de ontmoeting.

De Britten waren gekleed in grijze of blauwe pakken. De enige vrouw droeg een blauw hoofddoek en een donkerroze shirt, aldus het persbureau Reuters. Een hoge Iraanse functionaris zei dat de Britten donderdag zullen vertrekken vanaf de luchthaven van Teheran.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/article413025.ece/Gegijzelde_Britten_in_Iran_vrijgelaten


Iranians release British sailors
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says 15 British naval personnel captured in the Gulf are free to leave.

He repeated Iran's view that the British sailors and marines "invaded" Iranian waters, but said they were being released as a "gift" to Britain.

He said they would be taken to Tehran airport and flown home within hours.

Downing Street welcomed news of the release, while Iranian state media said the British crew members "shouted for joy" on hearing the news.

Television pictures showed the Iranian president smiling and chatting with the crew.

He joked to one: "How are you? So you came on a mandatory vacation?"

The Britons were wearing suits, rather than the military uniform and tracksuits they wore in previous pictures. The one female crew member, Faye Turney, wore a blue headscarf and jacket.

An unidentified crew member said: "I'd like to say that myself and my whole team are very grateful for your forgiveness. I'd like to thank yourself and the Iranian people... Thank you very much, sir."

Mr Ahmadinejad responded in Farsi: "You are welcome."

'Theatrical gesture'

Mr Ahmadinejad announced the decision to release the Britons at a news conference marking Persian New Year.

   
UK VERSION OF EVENTS
1 Crew boards merchant ship 1.7NM inside Iraqi waters
2 HMS Cornwall was south-east of this, and inside Iraqi waters
3 Iran tells UK that merchant ship was at a different point, still within Iraqi waters
4 After UK points this out, Iran provides alternative position, now within Iranian waters

He spoke at length, attacking the West over its policy in the Middle East, and it was more than an hour before he even mentioned the captives issue.

He repeated allegations that the Britons were captured in Iranian waters, and awarded medals to the Iranian commanders responsible for detaining them.

It was all part of the build up to his extraordinary theatrical gesture, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.

"We have every right to put these people on trial," Mr Ahmadinejad asserted.

"But I want to give them as a present to the British people to say they are all free."

   The British government was not even brave enough to tell their people the truth
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

"I'm asking Mr Blair to not put these 15 personnel on trial because they admitted they came to Iranian territorial water," he added, referring to taped "confessions" made by the British sailors and marines.

Britain says the 15 were in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate when they were captured nearly two weeks ago. It says the confessions were extracted under duress.

"I ask Mr Blair: Instead of occupying the other countries, I ask Mr Blair to think about the justice, to think about the truth and work for the British people not for himself," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"Unfortunately the British government was not even brave enough to tell their people the truth, that it made a mistake."

The Iranian leader said no concessions had been made by the British government to secure the releases, but that Britain had pledged "that the incident would not be repeated".

   
IRANIAN VERSION OF EVENTS
1 Royal Navy crew stray 0.5km inside Iranian waters
2 Iran gives set of co-ordinates to back up their claims
3 According to seized GPS equipment, the Royal Navy crew had previously entered Iranian waters at several other points
4 Iran informs Britain of the position where the crew were seized, inside Iranian waters

The solution to the crisis - freeing the Britons while rewarding the Iranian commanders of the operation - appears to be a face-saving compromise, says the BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran.

She says speculation is likely to continue over whether it had anything to do with developments in Iraq, where an Iranian envoy has reportedly been given access to five Iranians captured by US forces, and where a kidnapped diplomat was released on Tuesday.

Earlier on Wednesday Syria revealed that it had been mediating between Iran and the UK over the sailors and marines.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "We welcome what the president has said about the release of our 15 personnel. We are now establishing exactly what this means in terms of the method and timing of their release."

The family of one of the captives, Royal Marine Adam Sperry, hailed the announcement as "the best present imaginable".

"Whoever has been in the right or wrong, the whole thing has been a political mess, so let's just get them home," said his uncle, Ray Cooper.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6525905.stm

[ARM-WAP]

Iran 'to release British sailors'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says 15 British naval personnel captured in the Gulf will be freed.
He repeated allegations that the British sailors and marines "invaded" Iranian waters, but said they would be freed as a "gift" to Britain.

He made the announcement at a news conference, in which he also awarded medals to the commanders who captured the British personnel in the Gulf.

Britain says the 15 were in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate.

Mr Ahmadinejad also criticised the US-led invasion of Iraq and Israel's war in Lebanon.

He used a news conference marking the Persian New Year to condemn the countries he said were behind "misery" and "destruction" in the world.

He said there did not appear to be anyone "to stand up and defend the rights of those oppressed".

He opened the news conference with references to the Islamic holy book, the Koran, then made a wide-ranging speech about the modern history of the Middle East, while attacking the West.

The invasion of Iraq was based on the false premise that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, he said, but even now "the occupation forces continue to stay there and people are still being killed".

Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2007/04/04 13:17:56 GMT

[Lex]

Elite Revolutionary Guard Broadens Its Influence in Iran

Unit That Captured Britons Has Sway In Politics, Economy

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the elite unit at the heart of the latest Middle East crisis, has greater power today than at any point since the revolution's early days to export Islamic militancy and challenge the West's presence in the region, say U.S. officials and Iran experts.
Its naval forces abducted 15 British sailors and marines nine days ago. Its special forces unit is operating deep in Iraq, providing militias with deadly roadside explosives used against American troops, U.S. officials say. It supplied missiles used by Hezbollah last summer in the longest war Arabs ever fought with Israel. And it now plays the largest role in Iran's ambitious military industries, including attempted acquisition of nuclear weapons and surface-to-surface missiles, according to an upcoming book by Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But almost three decades after the 1979 revolution, the Revolutionary Guard has also become a leading political and economic force in Iran. One of its veterans, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, became Iran's president in 2005. The force and a network of current and former commanders have also moved into Iran's oil and gas business, won bids on major government construction contracts, and even gained lucrative franchises such as Mercedes-Benz dealerships, the sources say.
"The Revolutionary Guards are quickly emerging as the most prominent actor in Iran," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "They're playing an increasingly active role on the domestic political scene, have enormous economic assets and interests, are a key player in the nuclear program, and are essentially running Iranian activities in Iraq and Lebanon."
The Guard's high profile is one of the reasons that the assets of its top officials were frozen, because of ties to sensitive nuclear and missile programs, under two U.N. resolutions passed on March 24 and Dec. 23. Among the officials cited were the Guard's top commander, Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, and deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Morteza Rezaie, as well as the heads of the Guard's ground forces, navy, Quds Force and Basij (Mobilization of the Oppressed) volunteers.
The widening presence of its Quds Force in Iraq is the reason U.S. troops launched two raids in December and January on Iran's operating bases, detaining seven men in Baghdad and Irbil. Five are still held, although Iranian officials expected them to be released on the Iranian new year, March 21.
Although neither Tehran nor London has linked the events, the 15 Britons were captured two days after Tehran expected the five in Iraq to be freed and the day before the U.N. vote freezing the assets of seven top Revolutionary Guard commanders.
In his first public comments on the matter, Ahmadinejad said yesterday that the Guard had demonstrated "skill and bravery" in detaining the Britons.
Ahmadinejad, who was a midlevel officer, mirrors the evolution of the Guard, formed to protect the revolutionaries and prevent a military coup. The Guard is separate from Iran's conventional military -- and less than one-third the size, according to Cordesman. Iran's regular army, navy and air force total more than 400,000 troops. The Guard numbers about 125,000. But its numbers belie its power.
The Guard gained stature during Iran's eight-year war with Iraq, when it fought some of the toughest battles, provided human minesweepers and took huge casualties. That generation has now come of leadership age, said Kenneth Katzman of the Congressional Research Service, the author of "Warriors of Islam," a book about the Guard.
"They fought as young men, and now they're middle-aged. They have gone from the battlefield to mayoralties, governates and management of ministries," Katzman said. Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was a senior Guard commander.
The Guard is now a less effective conventional fighting force than it was during the Iran-Iraq war, Cordesman said. But it controls the deadliest arms, including adapted Scud missiles with ranges up to 1,200 miles, along with a chemical and biological weapons program and missile production. The Revolutionary Guard remains "the center of Iran's hard-line security forces," he said.
The most secretive Guard unit is the Quds Force, which conducts operations beyond Iran's borders using proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Cordesman says in the book. It has several directorates -- for Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories and Jordan; Afghanistan, Pakistan and India; Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula; North Africa; and Europe and North America, Cordesman writes. It has operatives in many embassies abroad, he says, and runs Iran's training camps for unconventional warfare.
In January, Cordesman says, Iran's Supreme National Security Council gave the Quds Force control of Iran's operations in Iraq and expanded it from 5,000 to 15,000 troops. After its men were captured in Iraq, the force has lowered its visibility and changed its style of operations, U.S. officials say.
The Quds Force is led by Brig. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and reports directly to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many senior Revolutionary Guard officers have close family ties to top members of the clergy, according to a study of the Guard by Michael Eisenstadt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The Guard's ties and the widening corruption in Iran have increasingly led its commanders, companies and connections to bid on and win government contracts, including for recent oil and gas projects, for which they are not qualified, U.S. officials say. The result, they add, is that key projects are either poorly done or farmed out to other contractors, for a commission.

By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 1, 2007

[Lex]

Bush: Capture of sailors 'inexcusable'

Ahmadinejad rips U.K. for not following 'legal, logical way' to resolve issue

TEHRAN, Iran - President Bush said Saturday that Iran's detention of 15 British sailors was "inexcusable" and that Tehran must release them immediately.
"The British hostage issue is serious because the Iranians took these people out of Iraqi water. It's inexcusable behavior. I strongly support the Blair government's attempts to resolve this peacefully," he said, referring to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Meanwhile, Iran's president said on Saturday the British government was not following "the legal and logical way" of resolving the dispute over the British naval personnel detained last week, state radio said.
"After the arrest of these people, the British government, instead of apologizing and expressing regret, over the action taken, started to claim that we are in their debt and shouted in different international councils," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the state radio report. "But this is not the legal and logical way for this issue."
Earlier, Britain said it was concerned at Iranian "saber-rattling" about possibly putting captured British naval personnel on trial and for the first time voiced regret the incident had occurred.
Iran's ambassador to Moscow said the 15 Britons captured eight days ago could face punishment if found guilty of illegally entering the Islamic Republic's territorial waters.
Britain insists the sailors were seized in Iraqi waters and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she was worried by such talk.
"Obviously, I am concerned. It is not the first person to have made saber-rattling noises," she told reporters after a European Union foreign ministers' meeting in Germany.
"The message I want to send is I think everyone regrets that this position has arisen. What we want is a way out of it."
Beckett said Britain had sent Iran a written reply to its diplomatic note on the detention of the sailors and had so far received no response.
Iran seized the sailors and marines in the northern Gulf on March 23 when they were on a U.N.-backed mission searching for smugglers. Tehran says they strayed into Iranian waters but Britain insists they were well in Iraqi territory.
The crisis, at a time of heightened Middle East tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions, has helped push oil prices to six-month highs over concerns an escalation might cut oil exports from the region.
More confusion
There were more confusing signals about Iran's intentions.
Iran's Moscow ambassador, Gholamreza Ansari, said in an interview broadcast by Vesti-24 television on Friday, according to a Reuters translation from the original Farsi: "If there is no guilt they will be freed but the legal process is going on and has to be completed and if they are found guilty they will face the punishment."
It was not clear on what authority he was speaking and IRNA said on Saturday Ansari had denied making the comments.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Sunday that Iran was considering charging the sailors with illegally entering its waters.
Iran's Foreign Ministry delivered a letter to Britain's embassy in Tehran on Thursday, the first written communication between the two capitals since the crisis began.
The IRNA news agency said the Iranian message asked for "necessary guarantees that violations against Iranian waters would not be repeated."
Beckett said: "We have made our response and we are now beginning to discuss. As you may know it's a holiday period in Iran and it's perhaps not too helpful."
The Iranian government is largely shut down for the two-week Nowruz holiday, a pre-Islamic Persian new year, which began on March 21 and ends next Tuesday.
'Corruption nest of the British old devil'
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was mandated on Friday by the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers to seek the Britons' immediate release. He said he had not yet been able to speak to Iranian leaders but his staff had made first contacts.
Student members of the Basij religious militia from across Iran issued a statement on Saturday demanding the British embassy in Tehran be closed down, calling it the "corruption nest of the British old devil," IRNA said.
They also invited students to protest outside the embassy on Sunday "to protest the violation of Iranian waters by British soldiers and the Security Council's latest statement," the student news agency ISNA said.
Iran displayed three of the detained Britons on television on Friday and released a letter from one saying she was being held because of "oppressive" British and U.S. behavior in Iraq.
British forces have been deployed in southern Iraq since joining the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. Britain and the United States accuse Iran of allowing sophisticated weapons used to target their forces to be brought into Iraq.
As NBC News' Tehran producer Ali Arouzi reports, after initially paying relatively little attention to the story, it is now top of the news in Iran.

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 5:37 p.m. ET March 31, 2007