That British/Iranian Flap

Since this story has enormous possibilities to turn into something ugly and considering that 'hostage crises' stir the emotions, it's important to take a closer look at what can be gleaned from the internet tubes.

Here's the official story. "An Iranian naval patrol seized 15 British marines and sailors who had boarded a vessel suspected of smuggling cars off the coast of Iraq, military officials said.
The British government immediately demanded the safe return of its troops and summoned Tehran's London ambassador to explain the incident."
Iran says the British were in Iranian waters, The British maintain they were in Iraqi waters. It's only speculation where the Brits are and whether they'll be charged for anything.

OK, they were arrested at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway leading up to Basra. The 7000 or so British in Iraq occupy the southern part of the country and are mandated by the UN to patrol the waterway for arms smugglers.

On thursday the Brits took off from the HMS Cornwall, a 450' long frigate with anti missile weapons, anti aircraft guns, anti ship guns and torpedo tubes.



The 15 troops left in rigid hull inflatable boats (rhibs).



They approached a barge to inspect it's cargo which turned out to be the aformentioned Toyota Corollas. As they were leaving some laughter among the arabs "irked the British crew", so they decided to go back the next day to presumably teach them a lesson. Accompanying them was a Lynx Mk 8 helicopter flying overhead. They made a beeline to the smugglers which was when they were surrounded by machine gun armed IRGCN patrol boats, and they were escorted away at gunpoint at about 10:30 in the morning.

At this point the story gets muddled because the parties involved all claim differing things. Of course we won't get any reporting from independent sources because all reporters were flown off the Cornwall to Bahrain on Saturday.

I initially thought that it would have been obvious that the action took place in Iranian waters which is why the British ship didn't come to their aid when they were arrested. But then I realised it all went down so fast that the much larger and slower frigate was helpless to do anything but stand by as they lost communication with the patrol. The Iranians say that navigational equipment onboard the patrol craft indicate the Brits knew they were in Iranian waters. And the Iraqi military doesn't think the Brits were in Iraqi territory:

“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."

Regardless of whether this was a provocation by the British in a long list of inducements to violence, a simple miscalculation or a dangerous statement made by the Iranians, this is just the sort of minor situation that could flare into a horrible conflagration. The Persian Gulf is bristling with american firepower, and the fascists are chomping at the bit for any excuse to use it. Add this incident to the phony accusations of Iranian armaments in Iraq killing GIs and the fig leaf of UN sanctions and they just might get their wish.