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Britain freezes all contact with Iran in soldier dispute

Britain yesterday froze all contacts with Iran as a dispute over 15 detained sailors intensified, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowing to step up pressure on the Islamic Republic.

Britain produced evidence which it said proved that the sailors and marines were in Iraqi waters when detained last Friday in the Gulf. Iran insisted the Britons were in its territory.

Turkey said meanwhile that its diplomats might be allowed to see the 14 men and one woman who are being kept at a secret location despite international calls for Iran to free them.

"We will ... be imposing a freeze on all other official bilateral business with Iran" until the navy personnel are released, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in a statement to lawmakers on the crisis.

A few minutes earlier, Blair had emphasized British determination in the dispute.

"It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure" on Tehran, Blair told parliament, adding that "there was no justification whatever" for the detention of the Britons.

"These personnel were patrolling in Iraqi waters under a UN mandate. Their boarding and checking of the Indian merchant vessel was routine. There was no justification whatever, therefore, for their detention," Blair said.

"It was completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal," he said.

The prime minister said Britain was in contact with "all our key allies" over the dispute and to "step up the pressure" on the Iranian government to release the captured Britons.

British military chiefs used maps and GPS coordinates to argue that the navy personnel were 1.7 nautical miles (3.15km) inside Iraqi waters at the northern end of the Gulf.

"The action by Iranian forces in arresting and detaining our people is unjustified and wrong. As such it is a matter of deep concern to us," Vice-Admiral Charles Style, deputy chief of the defense staff, told reporters.

Britain is now taking a much harder line after Blair warned on Tuesday that negotiations would enter a "different phase" if the 15 were not released.

Meanwhile, CNN-Turk news channel quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki yesterday as saying that a woman sailor captured along with the 14 servicemen would be released "today or tomorrow."

"The detained British woman soldier will be freed today or tomorrow," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the channel.
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