Iran playing games

[Solver]

And the UNSC approved tougher sanctions against Iran. Not that it's going to have any effect.

[Gibsie]

Tony Blair needs to step up... who else will be making the demands otherwise, Margaret Beckett? Maybe change her name to Maggie and make her talk through a sponge and make them think she's Thatcher if she'[s the only one available.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Lonestar


Bush(41) issued an executive order to withdraw nukes from all USN surface Vessels, Oerdin.

yup, no nukes on surface ships (except the fuel in reactors )

[kittenOFchaos]

The RAF could do what? Bomb our own men and the Iranians too...how useful.

Britain doesn't want a War, the Iranians are just nuts and hopefully we'll get our guys back peacefully in a few days minus their equipment and have done abit more thinking about how to respond should the Iranians try to repeat this move.

If they keep our men, then time for the gloves to start coming off.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Bush(41) issued an executive order to withdraw nukes from all USN surface Vessels, Oerdin.

We don't carry nukes on aircraft carriers anymore?

[Pekka]

kittenOFchaos, right, I agree. And all we know, the Iranians MIGHT be right. That is, if they drifted into their area, they have the right to arrest them and hold them for questioning, definitely.

But they are not hostages yet. I think it's unlikely the situation turns into that. But if it should, then definitely it's a very hostile act and Britain should do what ever it can to rescue those soldiers, including using force. It sets a pretty bad example to not try force if necessary. It's snatching free for all then.

I'm pretty confident that this will result into peaceful solution pretty soon. If not, Iran makes a big mistake.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


We don't carry nukes on aircraft carriers anymore?

As I said, "Bush(41) issued an executive order to withdraw nukes from all USN surface Vessels,". The official USN response is "we do not discuss the status of nuclear weapons on Naval Vessels."


Now, once upon a time there use to be Marines on CVNs and CGs there specifically to guard the warheads, and now they aren't there anymore. Take from that what you will.

[Ramo]

The Iraqis are claiming that they weren't in Iraqi waters:

But the boundary has long been in dispute around the 125-mile-long channel Shatt al-Arab — known in Iran as Arvandrud, Farsi for the Arvand River. Saddam Hussein canceled the 1975 treaty five years later and invaded Iran, triggering an eight-year war. Virtually all of Iraq's oil is exported through an oil terminal near the mouth of the channel.

The Iraqi military commander of the country's territorial waters cast doubt on claims the Britons were in Iraqi waters.

"We were informed by Iraqi fishermen after they had returned from sea that there were British gunboats in an area that is out of Iraqi control," Brig. Gen. Hakim Jassim told AP Television News in the southern city of Basra.

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/topstories_story_083091559.html

This isn't the first time a situation like this happened:

In 2004, eight British servicemen were held for three days after their boats strayed into Iranian waters. They were freed after being blindfolded, interrogated, and forced to read apologies on Iranian TV. Some of the sensitive British equipment from 2004 has not been returned, British officials say.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400095.html

Hopefully, this'll be resolved in a similar manner...

[Drake Tungsten]

The sailors, taken at gunpoint Friday by Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Al Quds soldiers were captured intentionally and are to be used as bargaining chips to be used for the release of five Iranians who were arrested at the Iranian consul in Irbil, Iraq by US troops, an Iranian official told the daily paper Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.

In addition, a senior Iranian military official said Saturday that the decision to capture the soldiers was made during a March 18 emergency meeting of the High Council for Security following a report by the Al-Quds contingent commander, Kassem Suleimani, to the Iranian chief of the armed forces, Maj.Gen. Hassan Firouz Abadi. In the report, according to Asharq al-Awsat, Suleimani warned Abadi that Al Quds and Revolutionary Guards' operations had become transparent to US and British intelligence following the arrest of a senior Al Quds officer and four of his deputies in Irbil.

According to the official, Iran was worried that its detained people would leak sensitive intelligence information.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/03/24/sailors-held-as-bargaining-chips-for-iranians-captured-by-us-in-irbil/

If this is true, get ready for **** to get serious...

[DanS]

It's gonna be tough to swap spies for soldiers. If they had some of our spies, it would be easier.

[Kuciwalker]

Maybe we could use "torture" to get the info out of them while we have them.

[GePap]

This will probably just end the same way as the 2004 incident.

Some people here have overactive imaginations.

[Drake Tungsten]

It's gonna be tough to swap spies for soldiers.

Especially British soldiers. American soldiers would be a better bargaining chip if you want to get your spies back from the Americans, but maybe they were too difficult to nab...

British Intelligence chiefs were warned in January to expect reprisal attacks from Iran after America detained five suspected Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq.

Although the CIA alert led to the United States raising its official security threat level throughout the Middle East and elsewhere, Britain did not follow suit.

The warning came after the US received credible information that Iranian-backed extremists were plotting attacks on Western targets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/25/wiran125.xml

[Solver]

Apparently Iran says they're going to be indicted with espionage, which is punishable by death in Iran. Trying to force an exchange that way?

[dannubis]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov

The best method would be what was described by Oerdin - having the brits open fire on the attacking Iranians.

Yeah, we see on a monthly basis how well that approach works on your own backyard !