Iran says may not release British woman

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Iran says may not release British woman
Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:43AM EDT

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will delay the release of the only woman among 15 British
military personnel detained last week if Tehran is faced with "fuss and wrong behavior"
from Britain, a senior Iranian official said on Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Wednesday Iran would release Faye
Turney "as soon as possible" but did not say when. A British diplomat in Tehran said the
embassy had not had any official word.

"We even said that the grounds were ready for the release of a woman among the British
sailors but if we are faced with a fuss and wrong behavior then this would be suspended
and it would not take place," Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National
Security Council, said on state television.

-snip-


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSBLA92753920070329

---

Source: Associated Press

Female Sailor's Release May Be Delayed


Thursday March 29, 2007 1:31 PM

AP Photo LON124, LON128, LON127, LON126

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran may delay the release of the female British sailor if Britain
takes the issue to the U.N. Security Council or freezes relations, the country's top
negotiator Ali Larijani said Thursday. The Foreign Office in London, meanwhile, said
Britain is seeking condemnation of Iran at the United Nations.

Speaking on Iranian state radio, Larijani said: “British leaders have miscalculated this
issue.”

If Britain follows through with its policies on the 15 British sailors and marines detained
by Iran last week, Larijani said “this case may face a legal path” - a clear reference
to Iran's prosecuting the sailors in court.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6517348,00.html

[soothsayer]

1. Well, let's not have any fuss and wrong behavior, then.

[Kagemusha]

4. Not have fuss from Tony Blair? That's asking the impossible, right there.

No way that'll happen.

[Solo_in_MD]

13. To Iran anything that is not what they want is the wrong behavior

[Algorem]

2. I knew these dark and swarthy devils just want our white women.

Is this a charade?

another deal like october surprise?

i mean isn't this white-damsel-in-distress bit a little over the top obvious or what?

They're Snidely Whiplash,we're Dudley Do-right.

Duh.

[crikkett]

3. US Is still hoding iranian diplomats months after their capture in Iraq

Welcome to Cold War II.

We're not going to attack Iran, we're going to spend another 40 years dorking around with them before we pick another mortal enemy to go into deadlock with.

sheesh.
:eyes:

[pampango]

5. "Just do what we want and we'll release one "hostage" "

Sounds like classic hostage negotiating tactics. Otherwise Iran will try them as spies (even though, by all reports, they were in military uniform which would make them unlikely spies).

Actually, the British should trade their naval commander for those 15 sailors. If he was stupid enough to send those sailors into Iranian waters on two rubber rafts to inspect an Indian commercial vessel as a deliberate provocation and violation of Iranian territorial waters, then he deserves to be held captive.

[non sociopath skin]

6. Trouble is, most of the world is likely asking "What the fcuk ...

... were they doing there anyway?"

The Skin

[cali]

14. They were there under a U.N. mandate n/t

[hogwyld]

20. UN madate or not

Iran has the right to protect it's country. Who's to say they weren't an advance scouting party? I sure as hell don't trust what the MSM is saying.

[Dave From Canada]

22. And I don't trust anything Iran says even more.

[hogwyld]

19. Exactly

Iran was protecting it's territorial integrity from a foreign invader. What were the british really up to? It's just a likely a recon mission as it was a "marine inspection" I don't buy the MSM's version of cheerleading for war.

[ShortnFiery]

7. If the Arrogant British leaders didn't LASH OUT from the onset of the capture ...

the would have released her. That area is IN DISPUTE. The EU and UN are also Dimson's puppy dogs when push comes to shove. He's all for Toe-Ney getting medieval on Iran's ass.

If British Rulers had "stayed quiet" and let the trained DIPLOMATS address the situation at the beginning, this woman would be back in Britain.

I fear Bush's reverse Midas Touch is rubbing off on his favorite lap dog. :thumbsdown:

[Solo_in_MD]

12. The UK reacation was mild, and allowed Iran a graceful way out which they spurned

The mullahs want this, the real question is why

[ohio2007]

17. the reaction the mullahs wanted was a spike in the price of oil

and they got exactly what they expected out of the UK. The price of oil didn't spike up bc the US policy change with iraqi troop redeployment.

[Solo_in_MD]

18. That is one of the many theories being advanced.

I tend to thing there were other ways to do it that would not have gotten thing so enflamed.

[cali]

15. If certain arrogant, ignorant people

didn't lash out with patently incorrect information, and stopped making shit up, DU would be a better place.

[bemildred]

8. Iran Won't Release Their High-Paying Guest Faye Turney

---

For Iran, exporting 2.5 million barrels a day that's a jump in daily income of some $15 million daily.

If you listen carefully you will hear the Saudis and the rest of their OPEC brethren cheering the mullahs on. OPEC loading out some 28 million barrels daily, that $6 becomes an additional windfall of some $168 million/day. Thank you Faye Turney.

I only hope for Faye Turney's sake she is being given accommodations worthy of the bounty she has rained on her Iranian captors and their ilk.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raymond-j-learsy/iran-wont-release-their-_b_44511.html

[Psephos]

21. Spot on n/t

[oberliner]

9. Iran Rolls Back on Pledge to Free Sailor

Source: Washington Post

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Thursday rolled back on a pledge to release a female British sailor, and a top official said the 15 captives may be put on trial.

Iran's foreign minister had said Tehran would soon free Faye Turney, the only woman among the sailors and marines seized last week while searching a merchant vessel in what Iran says were its territorial waters near Iraq.

But Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, Iran's military chief, said that because of the "wrong behavior" by the British government, "the release of a female British soldier has been suspended," the semiofficial Iranian news agency Mehr reported.

Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani also told state television that British leaders "have miscalculated this issue" and if they follow through with threats, the case "may face a legal path" _ presumably putting the Britons on trial.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032900976.html

[CK_John]

10. This will not be another 444 day situation. Iran is overplaying its hand.

[sharp_stick]

11. That country scares the crap out of me

For awhile it looked like it was on the path to moderation, the President was very much a reformer and now it's being led by a total nutjob Taliban wannabe. I think those sailors will be freed eventually it's just a bunch of sabre rattling IMO but it's not a good sign for the future.

Funny how as soon as shrub started his whole axis of evil bullshit Iran rolled back all of its advances from the last almost 20 years and are now in just the position we don't need them to be in. The most militarily and theologically powerful country in the Middle East.

[Jonathan50]

16. Why do they scare you?

They are on the other side of the world, lack a blue water navy or an air force capable of reaching the US.

Iran is no military threat to the USA at all and anyone who thinks they are is delusional to the point of fantasy.

[Psephos]

24. It does not take a blue water navy to smuggle a suitcase nuke into New York

Iran is run by right-wing religious fundamentalists who literally describe the US as the Great Satan, the source of all evil.

True believers scare the shit out of me wherever I encounter them.

I am *completely* against war with Iran. I am also *completely* against thinking that the deeply corrupt mullahocracy in Iran poses no threat to anyone. What they do to their own people is appalling.

We need coordinated international effort to pressure Iran away from its irrational actions, and we need it now.

[sharp_stick]

25. Because they are fundamentalits

That's enough for me, I distrust organized religions basically and those who believe only the written word and nothing else as the basic fundamentalists do are scary. I don't care if they are fundie Islam or fundie Jewish or fundie Christian, I am scared of what they represent and what they want to turn the world into.

The fact that the Iranians likely won't be able to come over here and shoot me really has nothing to do with it.

[Dave From Canada]

23. What scares me alot more is the amount of people who actually defend and apologize for them.