Holding Britain Hostage

The British government is making good on providing proof that the Iranians violated international law, invaded Iraqi waters to take hostage 15 Royal Marines and sailors, and continues to violate the Geneva Convention by holding them and threatening to put them on trial for espionage.

The Royal Navy took the highly unusual step of making public charts, photographs and previously secret navigational coordinates purportedly proving that the sailors were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when they were seized.

The Navy’s disclosure was only the beginning of a coordinated response by some of the most senior British officials, including Mr. Blair and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, who told parliament that Britain would “be imposing a freeze on all official bilateral business with Iran until the situation is resolved.”

While the impact of that prohibition was unclear, it seemed to reflect the first formal reprisal by Britain in response to the seizure of its personnel.

Iran responded by insisting that the British sailors were inside Iranian waters when they were seized. At the same time, though, a Turkish television station, CNN-Turk, quoted the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as saying that Iran may allow Turkish diplomats to visit the captured Britons.

The Royal Navy rejected two sets of coordinates provided by Iran as evidence of its claim that the British sailors had strayed into Iranian territorial waters.

The British government provides charts and other detailed information proving their forces were inside Iraqi waters at the time. Iran simply insists they were in Iranian waters. The Times discounts the British claims and gives equal weight to the Iranians who have provided absolutely no evidence to support their contention.

I'm sure the Iranians are quivering in their boots when hearing about the freezing of bilateral business with Iran. Oh, I'm sure that will hurt. Like a papercut perhaps, but it wont get the sailors released, and it certainly wont instill any fear in the mad mullahs who see nothing but weakness from the Brits. I've said it before, but restraint is often confused with weakness - and that's a bad place to be in. The Iranians are taking the British reluctance to put force on the table to be a sign of weakness, which will further embolden the Iranians to taking more reckless and dangerous acts.

The US, meanwhile, is continuing to conduct naval exercises in the Gulf with two carrier battle groups. While the British may not have the naval or ground forces in place to mount a raid on Iran, the US certainly does. Iran is playing an extremely dangerous game and the mad mullahs are betting the West caves. To date, they've been right. The Iranians can wait out the US as they watch Congressional Democrats set timetables that give everyone in the region a deadline by which they simply have to survive in order to thrive and expand their operations.

UPDATE:
Seems that Iran may be ready to release the sole female British sailor being held. The Iranians are also set to release video confessions, as though confessions through coersion mean anything not to mention that they too are prohibited by the Geneva Convention (Prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity).

UPDATE:
The Iranians have released their agitprop, including a video that shows Faye Turney wearing Iranian clothes and a head wrap. She recites a note that claims that the Brits entered Iranian waters. These people are being held against their will and are being used as propaganda by the Iranian mullahs.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has the video and screencaps.

UPDATE:
Iran is pressing matters, claiming that Britain must admit the Royal Navy crossed into Iranian waters to get its sailors and Royal Marines back. The supposed release of Turney may be scuttled by the Iranians.