British navy personnel freed
Updated on 04 April 2007
The 15 British service personnel held captive by Iran have been released as a 'gift to the UK'.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made the announcement during a long speech in which he said the sailors and Marines would be "forgiven".
During his speech, Mr Ahmadinejad awarded bravery medals to the coastguards who captured the 15 service personnel.
Tehran accused them of trespassing in Iranian waters, a charge Britain has vehemently denied.
In a reference to one of the captives, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, Mr Ahmadinejad said: "How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children. Why don't they respect the values of families in the West? Why is there no respect for motherhood, affection?"
He insisted the UK Government had not told the British people the truth about the alleged border incursion in the Shatt al-Arab waterway.
The hardline president's comments came after the UK was said to have begun direct talks for the release of the HMS Cornwall personnel with Iran's chief negotiator Dr Ali Larijani.
"The Government of Mr Blair chose to take the conflicting approach and took the issue to the Security Council," said Mr Ahmadinejad.
"Why did the Security Council issue a statement without taking all the evidence into account?
"People wonder why and people wonder where is the Security Council going to? What's the direction?
"And then Iran is accused and then Iran is asked to release the detainees.
"Would the same people want their land to be violated?"
Earlier, Mr Ahmadinejad said Iran would never accept trespassing of its territorial waters.
"On behalf of the great Iranian people, I would like to thank the Iranian coastguard for courageously defending our Iranian territorial waters," the president added.
He then pinned medals on the chests of three coastguard officers.
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