The Iran/British/US Prisoner Situation
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in UncategorizedHere’s the situation. Iran took 15 British soldiers who were traveling in their waters. The US has taken over 300 Iranian intelligence officers in Iraq in recent months.
Pajamas Media has more about what this means…
This week’s seizure of 15 British sailors by Iran in the contested waters of the Shattab al-Arab, the ship channel that divides Iraq and Iran, may have been payback for the capture of record number of Iranian operatives inside Iraq. “It may be a bargaining chip,� one diplomatic source said. [...]The record haul of Iran-linked prisoners may not be a sign of Iran’s increasing involvement in Iraq. The Islamic Republic’s participation in the Iraq war, which includes funding, arming and training both Shiite and Sunni militias, has been known to be significant for some time.
More likely, the large number of Iran-linked prisoners reflects a change in tactics following the arrival of Multinational Force Iraq commander Army Gen. David H. Petraeus. Previously, Iranians and other foreigners could not be picked up without a provable connection to terrorism. Now, American and allied forces are encouraged to seize militants based on a reasonable suspicion of involvement in insurgent attacks. This is consistent with Iraqi law. [...]
The Pentagon received “considerable pressure� from officials in the State department and CIA to release some or all of the Iran-linked prisoners to facilitate discussions between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iranian officials. Apparently, Gen. Petraeus sharply disagreed, saying that he intends to hold the prisoners “until they run out of information or we run out of food,� according to our sources who heard these remarks through channels.
More as it develops.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 25th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Pajamas Media expects to gain credibility with a name like that?
Seriously, I never thought of that angle in this situation. It makes a lot of sense.
March 25th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Justin -
Iran says the British soldiers were in their waters, but they say they were in Iraq waters. Yet - you state it as a fact that the soldiers were in Iran’s waters. Why?
The US has a mandate from the UN to be in Iraq and help them secure their country. Why on earth are you comparing the US arresting Iraqi agents in Iraq with this move by Iran?
You totally baffle me.
March 25th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
We don’t know what waters the Brits were in … Blair says they were not in Iranian waters and I tend to believe the Brits over the Iranians. Whether or not this is a clear act of aggression by the Iranians is still to be determined — it could just be a situation where an Iranian captain got a little over-zealous and now Iran is trying to save face. Or it could have been a planned event. We don’t know.
But Iran sure seems to be playing a pretty serious game of chicken with the West (or at least with the U.S. and U.K.). Not good.
March 25th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
*Why on earth are you comparing the US arresting Iraqi agents in Iraq with this move by Iran?
should be..
Why on earth are you comparing the US arresting Iranian agents in Iraq with this move by Iran?
March 25th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Monica-
I totally agree that the issue of where the sailors actually were is far from settled, and I also tend to believe the british.
However, the seizure of the sailors can be compared to the US arresting iranian agents in as much as this incidence is probably a tit for tat retaliation by the iranians for those arrests.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:42 am
USD Law Student,
Your an idiot. Under your theory if a state puts someone jail for murder then the family of that man has the right to put a police officer in jail because they feel like it.
Iranians are trespassing if they are in Iraq and should be shot as spies.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:14 am
I think the Iran’s President M. A. has an inferiority complex(think North Korean dictator) and just wants the attention he thinks he and Iran deserves. This 3rd rate “fascist” wants the world to know he’s “The Man” and that Iran is a power to be recon with. Call me crazy but I think ONE of the factors of all this posturing is becauses he’s getting back at the western world because of the movie “300″. If you haven’t seen this movie(and M.A. did and was incensed about it) it makes Persians(Iran) look very bad. The other facor is that he can instill national pride by thumbing his nose at Britain, this also serves to distract the Iranian public from the high unemployment(40%) and high poverty the population is experiencing.