WORLD / Middle East
Report: Iran to air UK confession
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-30 17:07
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's official Arabic-language TV channel said Friday it
would broadcast footage of a confession by one of the 15 detained British
sailors.
Faye Turney, 26, left, the only woman amongst the British navy personnel
seized by Iran, and an unidentified sailor eat a meal, in this image made
from television, in footage broadcast by Al-Alam, an Arabic-language,
Iranian state-run television station, in Tehran, Wednesday March 28,
2007. [AP]
The move seemed to be an Iranian bid to step up the propaganda battle
over where the sailors were when they were detained by the Iranian navy
near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway on Friday last week.
In a message flashed as "Urgent" on its screen, the Al-Alam channel said
it would air the taped confession later Friday but did not say what it
would contain. Nor did it identify the sailor involved.
Iran has demanded that Britain acknowledge that its sailors had violated
Iranian waters, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying Thursday
that such an admission would help to secure the release of the 15 sailors
and marines.
Britain insists the sailors were seized in Iraqi waters, where they were
searching merchant ships under a UN mandate, and said no admission of
error would be made.
At Britain's instance, the UN Security Council on Thursday expressed
"grave concern" over Iran's seizure of the military personnel and called
for an early resolution of the escalating dispute.
The Turkish prime minister's office said Friday that Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indicated his government is willing to reconsider
the release of the only female among the British captives.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Ahmadinejad on
Thursday evening, said Erdogan's spokesman, Akif Beki. Ahmadinejad told
the prime minister that Iran was "willing to reconsider the issue of the
release of the woman crew member," Beki said.
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