So who won the Persian standoff?

Last Modified: 04 Apr 2007
By: Nick Paton Walsh

They may be free, but the capture of 15 British naval personnel puts Britain's Iran strategy in the spotlight.

After the homecoming, the questions - about Britain's strategy, the dealings with Iran, and how the Royal Navy crew were captured in the first place.

Tonight it's emerged that one of the crew, Captain Chris Air, gave a television interview days before his capture, admitting part of their mission was to gather intelligence on the Iranians. That's something that couldn't be revealed until the navy personnel had been released.

And the prime minister questioned whether elements of the Iranian regime were behind last night's roadside bomb in Iraq, which killed four British soldiers.

The Iranian reaction

Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari in Tehran joined us, with former Foreign Office Press Secretary John Williams, to discuss the implications of this move in Iran. - Watch the discussion

A unit returning from a night raid in Basra was hit by a single blast, then an ambush. Four troops dead, together with their translator, and another seriously injured.

The explosion was massive enough to revive suspicions that Iranian hardliners could have supplied its technology. It ripped right through their armoured Warrior vehicle.

'Just as we rejoice at the return of 15 service personnel, so we today are also grieving and mourning the loss of soldiers in Basra who were killed as the result of a terrorist act.'
Tony Blair

Now Britain's strategy towards Iran is in the spotlight. A senior UK official said their mix of international pressure and diplomacy had worked.

Yet he admitted that Britain had no advanced warning of Iran's decision to release the sailors yesterday. There was no apology, and there were no deals struck. He blamed the protracted 13-day ordeal in part on Iranian officials not deciding what their position was.

A source close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard told me President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been kept silent during the crisis. He said Iran's security chief, Ali Larijani, had been the main winner domestically from an incident that showed Iran could be strong and honest in dialogue over its nuclear programme, too.

But Iran will seize on images that show Marine Chris Air before his arrest, admitting his patrol was also gathering intelligence on Iran.

An innocent part of his anti-smuggling role, said one UK official. But it is another twist that could make London's brief new dialogue with Tehran short indeed.