Will freeing of Iranian diplomat aid Britons?

Sensitive stage of standoff
“The violation was clear and obvious and all evidences and documents were suggesting occurrence of the violation,” Davoodi added. “Britain has recently changed its approach and shifted toward legal and diplomatic negotiations.”

However, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett urged caution in expectations of a swift resolution, saying that “diplomatic efforts will continue.” She also said Britain still has not been granted consular access to the captives.

With the standoff at a sensitive stage, Britain reacted with caution to the release Tuesday of new pictures of the British captives on the Web site of Iran’s Fars News Agency. The images showed six sailors sitting on a carpet in a room, wearing blue, black and red tracksuits. Two sailors were shown playing chess.

The caption said: “British sailors are chatting and eating fruit, drinking coffee and playing chess. It seems that the sailors are satisfied with their situation, in which they are enjoying good conditions instead of working in a hard situation in the Persian Gulf.”

Faye Turney, the only woman among the captured, was shown without a head scarf. She had worn one in initial images released of the Royal Navy crew.

Britain has expressed outrage over the airing of earlier videos in which Turney and others “confessed” to violating Iranian territorial waters. The British also froze most diplomatic contacts with Iran and urged their European and Asian allies to step up pressure on Tehran to free the captives.

No more confessions
The latest pictures did not show any further confessions. And as tensions have escalated, the Iranians have appeared to back off somewhat.

On Monday, an Iranian state-run television station said all 15 Britons had confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters. But state-run radio said the confessions would not be broadcast because of what it called “positive changes” in Britain’s negotiating stance.

Chief Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani told Britain’s Channel 4 news on Monday that Iranian officials “definitely believe that this issue can be resolved and there is no need for any trial.”

Blair told Scotland’s Real Radio that if Iran wants to resolve the standoff with diplomacy, “the door is open.”

Britain has two options, Blair said.

“One is to try settle this by way of peaceful and calm negotiation to get our people back as quickly as possible,” he said. “The other is to make it clear that if that is not possible, that we have to take an increasingly tougher position.”

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