Captured Brits taken to Tehran

LONDON – Fifteen British sailors and marines seized by Iranian naval forces have been taken to Tehran for questioning as a diplomatic dispute between Iran and the West intensified Saturday.

The Iranian Fars news agency reported that the British personnel were being asked to explain what Iran calls their “aggressive” trespass into Iranian territorial waters on Friday. The agency quoted a senior Iranian military official, Alireza Afshar, as saying that the British service members had “confessed” and that if the United States and its allies invaded Iran, they would “not be able to control the dimensions and period of the war.”

British officials insist that the sailors and marines, on two small patrol boats, were in Iraqi waters in the Persian Gulf conducting a routine patrol under a U.N. mandate. British officials said the eight sailors and seven marines had just completed an inspection of a merchant ship when they were surrounded by Iranian vessels and captured near Shatt al Arab, a waterway between Iraq and Iran that has long been a source of territorial disputes.

In London, British officials summoned the Iranian ambassador, Rasoul Movahedian, for an hour-long meeting to “reiterate our demand that our people be released immediately,” according to a spokesman for the Foreign Office. It was the second such meeting in two days.

The European Union said Saturday that it would demand the “immediate liberation” of the British personnel.

The incident comes at a time when Iran is under increasing international pressure over its nuclear ambitions and its growing influence in Iraq.

Officials have said the seizure might be a reprisal for the U.S. detention of five Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives in January during a raid in Iraq. U.S. officials accuse the men of being involved in arming and aiding Shiite militias in Iraq. Iran denies those allegations and has demanded their release.