U.N. weighs in on Iran-Britain dispute

Alleged letter
The Iranians released a letter Wednesday purportedly written by Turney to her family saying the British sailors were in Iranian waters. And the video aired Thursday showed another letter supposedly by Turney to Britain’s Parliament calling for British troops to leave Iraq.

“I ask the representatives of the House of Commons, after the government promised that this kind of incident wouldn’t happen again, why did they let this occur, and why has the government not been questioned over this,” the letter read. “Isn’t it time to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?”

Some experts raised questions about that letter, saying its wording hinted it was first composed in Farsi and then translated into English.

“It’s obviously been dictated to her,” said Nadim Shehadi, an expert on Iran at the Chatham House think tank in London. “There’s no way she would phrase it like that.”

Beckett said there were “grave concerns about the circumstances in which it was prepared and issued.”

“This blatant attempt to use Leading Seaman Turney for propaganda purposes is outrageous and cruel,” Beckett said.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said Britain wanted to resolve the crisis quickly and without having a “confrontation over this.”

“We are not seeking to put Iran in a corner. We are simply saying, ’Please release the personnel who should not have been seized in the first place,”’ said the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

But in a briefing to reporters, the spokesman said British officials had been angered by Tehran’s decision to show video of the captives.

“Nobody should be put in that position. It is an impossible position to be put in,” he said. “It is wrong. It is wrong in terms of the usual conventions that cover this. It is wrong in terms of basic humanity.”

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