Iran's gift to Britain

Last Modified: 04 Apr 2007
By: Jonathan Rugman

Tonight the fifteen British sailors and marines are finally freed after almost two weeks captivity in Iran.

Inside Iran's presidential palace the press room was packed, for the news conference had been mysteriously postponed from yesterday and the President of the Islamic Republic was expected to speak publicly for the first time about the fate of the 15 British captives.

At first it didn't seem as if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would. For more than an hour he lectured the world's cameras on the history of American and British aggression, and on the injustice of UN sanctions aimed at halting Iran's nuclear programme.

Then, with the President's nationalist conservative powerbase thus appeased, an extraordinary drama began to unfold. The Revolutionary Guard commanders who'd captured the Britons were called onto the stage and awarded medals of honour.

'God is great!' shouted one of the Britons' captors, 'I sacrifice my life for the supreme leader.'

"I hereby announce that the great Iranian nation... will forgive these 15 captives. And grant their release to the British people as a gift."
- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

Setting the Britons free hardly seemed to be on the President's agenda. He called them trespassers, and was clearly appalled at the decision to send a woman, Faye Turney to sea.

"The lady is the mother of a little child! Why should such a difficult task of searching the sea be given to a mother thousands of miles from home? Why don't they pay some respect to a mother's love? Why are family values in the west about to collapse?"

"Tony Blair should have told the British people the truth," he said, that the sailors had made a mistake.

And then he dropped his bombshell:

"I hereby announce that the great Iranian nation and the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, maintaining its sovereignty and its legal rights to these British forces on trial, will forgive these 15 captives. And grant their release to the British people as a gift. And this comes from the Islamic teachings of the Prophet Mohammed." - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

And with that a 13 day diplomatic crisis was suddenly over. A clearly delighted Ahmadinejad had milked his appearance on the world stage, his fifteen minutes of fame lasting a full hour and a half. Iranian demands for a British apology apparently dropped.

Blog: Getting Larijani

"...and quite suddenly the logjam over the captured sailors was broken."

Read Jon Snow's blog on getting the second most important man in Iran. - Read Jon's blog

It seemed Iran's various governing factions just back from a long spring holiday had simply taken time to decide what to do with the sailors.

Yet for the Prime minister there was nothing whimsical about today's release. Though the UN had struggled to sound united on this issue, though it had taken Blair's officials 12 days to bring Iran's chief negotiator to the telephone, tomorrow's homecoming a triumph for diplomacy

but what really persuaded the Iranians to release the 15 we just don't know. Perhaps Iran's Supreme leader to whom, the President answers simply felt that his point had been well and truly made. Mess with Iran, impose sanctions on it, threaten it in any way and you can be sure we'll cause trouble in return.