Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday greeted 15 British sailors being released almost two weeks after their capture set off an international diplomatic furor.
The 15 British sailors will leave for home from Tehran's Mehrabad airport today, an aide to the president said yesterday.
The naval personnel were seen on state television chatting with Ahmadinejad after the hardline president's surprise announcement that the 14 men and one woman would be freed as a "gift" to the British people.
The dramatic news announcement at a much-anticipated press conference by Ahmadinejad in Tehran was quickly welcomed by the British and US governments, as well as relatives of the 15 sailors.
"Although Iran has the right to prosecute them by following the model of the prophet, the 15 people were pardoned and their freedom given as a gift to the British people," Ahmadinejad said.
He said the Britons, some of whom had been paraded several times on state television "confessing" to trespassing in Iranian waters, "will be going back home today [yesterday]."
A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomed the unexpected news, while Nick Summers, the brother of one of the captives, Nathan Summers, said it was "brilliant news."
"It's been a long, long 13 days," Summers told Britain's Sky News.
Iranian state media said the 15, who were seized while patrolling the northern Gulf on March 23, had "shouted for joy" when the news of their release was broken.
The standoff had further damaged ties between Tehran and the West already strained by Iran's controversial nuclear program and had sent jitters through world oil and financial markets.
Oil prices, which had surged to near seven-month highs over the crisis, fell on the news of the release, while US share prices opened slightly higher.
However, Iran's hardline president -- who had postponed the news conference from Tuesday -- lashed out at Britain over its handling of the 13-day crisis and decorated a Revolutionary Guards commander who had seized the Britons in the Gulf.
He also said the British government had promised in a letter not to repeat the incident.
"The Blair government chose the path of media hype and sent the issue to the UN Security Council," Ahmadinejad said.
"The British people can ask its government what the British soldiers are doing in Iraq or in Iranian waters," he said.
'Change of tone'
His announcement came after Iran had applauded a "change of tone" from Britain following talks between top security official Ali Larijani and Blair's chief foreign policy adviser Sir Nigel Sheinwald late on Tuesday.
Iran had insisted that the key to resolving the crisis was an admission from Britain that the sailors and marines did intrude into Iranian territorial waters when they were seized last month.
Britain maintains the group was carrying out routine anti-smuggling operations in Iraqi waters in line with a UN mandate, but Iran says the sailors' global positioning system devices show they intruded on Iranian waters.
The latest developments coincided with the release in Baghdad of an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq in early February. Iran had blamed US forces in the country for the abduction.
Iranian state media also said five Iranian officials captured by US forces in northern Iraq in January and accused of seeking to stir trouble were expected to receive their first visit by an Iranian diplomat.
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