Iran playing games

[Dinner]

Originally posted by ElTigre
Interview with Commodore Nick Lambert, who is in charge of the Task Force:

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video/videoStory?videoId=46372

Does the bolded part mean that he thinks the Iranians might have had a valid reason for detaining the sailors, or just that he expects Iran to make such a claim?

It sounded like he's saying the Iranians claim as their territorial waters much more then international law allows.

[SlowwHand]

What a shocker.

[Gibsie]

Originally posted by LordShiva

Someone should really tell the BBC to fix that black box showing where the area is. Unless the sailors were seized off the coast of Uzbekistan, of course. Idiots.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Ramo
The Iraqis are claiming that they weren't in Iraqi waters:

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

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

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

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

You're hoping that they will be forced to apologize on Iranian TV and that sensitive equipment wont be returned?

AFAIK it was never admitted by the RN that they were in Iranian waters, and its believed that the equipment was not returned because it would have shown they were not.

[lord of the mark]

[SIZE=1] Originally posted by Sirotnikov No country but Israel defends its soldiers as much.

The USA had captives in Iran for years, and did nothing.
.

Incorrect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw

Granted, it failed. But then the IDF hasnt succeeded lately either.

[Drake Tungsten]

Iran's seizure of the 15 British sailors was a carefully planned retaliation for the arrest of five Revolutionary Guard--Quds Force officers from the Iranian consulate in Irbil, Iraq, by U.S. forces on Jan. 11, according to Western intelligence sources.

The sources tell ABC News the decision to abduct the British marines in that location was apparently calculated to exploit the nebulous and often disputed international border between Iran and Iraq that runs through the Shat al Arab.

Iran has claimed that the sailors had ventured into Iranian waters, a claim that British officials deny. A local fisherman, who witnessed the officers on the Revolutionary Guard patrol boats detain the British sailors, supports the British claim that the sailors were in Iraqi waters.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/03/why_iran_seized.html

It's looking more and more like this was a calculated action on the part of the Iranians...

[Ramo]

You're hoping that they will be forced to apologize on Iranian TV and that sensitive equipment wont be returned?

Of course that's what I meant. Since those are clearly the most important parts of the resolution.

[TheStinger]

We used to go to war over things like this.

BTW I'm not saying we should go to war, just that we used to.

If we don't get them back soon though, I think we should blockade Iran.

[Drake Tungsten]

The ****ty thing about this deal is that Iran deserves a good ass kicking, but doing so would probably help the regime out.

[Geronimo]

I wonder how a blockade would turn out. Would iran cave in or escalate or just wait until the will to maintain the blockade crumbled?

[TheStinger]

In reality I doubt the UK could maintian an effective bloackade on its own, then again the US are looking for an excuse....

[Kuciwalker]

Why? Did you scrap your minicarriers?

[LordShiva]

Don't blockade Iran

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Why? Did you scrap your minicarriers?

I wouldn't think they would have the air defence capability needed.

Until we get oir new big carriers which I assume will have the typhoon on we would have to rely on the US

[DanS]

Admittedly, exacting a price from Iran in this case may be hard. But I suggest that it's not in the UK's interest to go down the road of appearing weak-willed. IMO, the US' problems in the ME began with appearing weak-willed during the Iran hostage crisis.

If the US is the only one able to exact the price in this instance, then it might just have to be that way, even though that's not a very good way to go about it. If I were a Brit, I wouldn't prefer to see the US do the hit. Besides, the imagination's the limit on this stuff and retribution isn't always military in nature, even if public in a splashy way. I suspect the Brits are at least as imaginative as Americans in this respect.