http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aF3WvMonDRns&refer=homeBlair Warns of `Different Phase' Over Britons in Iran (Update2)
By Nick Allen and Rob Hutton
March 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said that efforts to release 15 British sailors and Marines seized by Iran will enter a ``different phase'' if negotiations fail.
The U.K. is using diplomatic channels to make the Iranian government understand that the eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines ``have to be released,'' Blair said today in an interview with the U.K. television show GMTV.
``I hope we manage to get them to realize they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase,'' Blair said. ``We cannot have a situation where our servicemen and women are seized.'' Asked what he meant by a different phase, Blair didn't elaborate. ``We'll just have to see,'' he said.
The group was captured at gunpoint in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which divides Iran and Iraq, on March 23. The U.K. says they were in Iraqi waters conducting routine inspections of merchant shipping. Iran says they were in Iranian waters.
The incident has led to a heightening of diplomatic tensions between the U.K. and Iran, which is already under international pressure over its refusal to suspend its nuclear program. The Islamic Republic has also been accused by Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush of interfering in Iraq.
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