Skip navigation
advertisement

U.N. weighs in on Iran-Britain dispute


< Prev | 1 | 2
FREE VIDEO
Mideast analysis
March 28: “Hardball” host Chris Matthews discusses Mideast issues, including the hostage-taking, with Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

Hardball

Slideshow
Iran-Iraq War
  A perilous path
A history of modern Iran and its love-hate relationship with the United States.

more photos

Iranian President Ahmadinejad
Curry’s extended interview with Ahmadinejad
Sept. 18: Watch TODAY’s Ann Curry’s exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

INTERACTIVE
Image: Iran election aftermath
Turmoil in Iran
View key dates in postelection violence
Interactive
Image: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iran's key political players
A look who's who on Iran's political scene

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.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

“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.”

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


< Prev | 1 | 2

Sponsored LinksGet listed here
Top Online Schools
Find the perfect online school and Boost your Career! Free Info Pack.
www.EarnMyDegree.com

Sponsored links

Resource guide