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Blair to bring evidence that Iran broke law

British sailor Faye Turney, seen in 2000, was captured along with 14 British servicemen by Iran on Friday for allegedly crossing into Iranian waterways. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Mary Jordan and Robin Wright Washington Post
British sailor Faye Turney, seen in 2000, was captured along with 14 British servicemen by Iran on Friday for allegedly crossing into Iranian waterways. (File Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

LONDON – Barring a surprise early release, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is preparing to go public in Parliament as soon as today with concrete evidence that Iran violated international law in seizing 15 British military personnel, after behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts failed, according to British and U.S. officials.

Tensions over the incident escalated Tuesday, with oil prices hitting a six-month high following suggestions by officials in Tehran that the 15 sailors and marines captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guard naval units on Friday might be put on trial.

Blair is expected to release Global Positioning System coordinates of the seizure, which British officials say took place in Iraqi waters, and other intelligence information on the encounter as early as his question-and-answer session in Parliament on Wednesday, British officials said.

“What we are trying to do … is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released, and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them,” Blair said Tuesday.

“They have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase,” he said.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that the British sailors and marines had “violated Iranian territory rights,” prompting “legal proceedings” against them, according to the official IRNA news agency.

“Humanitarian principles are fully observed in questioning” the British navy personnel, Hosseini said.

Britain is not yet ready to expel Iranian diplomats or engage in gunboat diplomacy, British officials said, but does want to pressure Iran publicly.

The British marines and sailors had just inspected an Indian boat near the Shatt al Arab waterway that divides Iran and Iraq when they were surrounded by Iranian patrol boats at gunpoint Friday. The British navy was acting under its U.N. mandate to patrol Iraqi waters and check for smuggling, British officials said.

Britain’s Defense Ministry has not released the names of the service members, but the family of the only woman, Faye Turney, 26, issued a statement saying that this was “a very distressing time.”

In an interview with the BBC last week before her capture, Turney said of her tour of duty in Iraq, “Sometimes you may be called upon, and when you do, you’ve just got to deal with it and get on with it.”