Iran: 'Determined to keep Britons'
Iranian government source warns captive British soldiers will not be released until Britain issues formal apology to Iran. Iranian students call on government to demand release of former Undersecretary of Defense General Ali Reza Asgari in exchange for captives
Chairman of Iran's Parliamentary Committee for National Security and Foreign Policy, Alaa Al-Din Boroujerdi, expressed his support on Saturday for the capture of 15 British soldiers by Iranian forces. Boroujerdi called the act "appropriate" and "legal" and said that it was a necessary step "so that foreign forces in Iran's neighboring countries will see that Iran is a powerful country in the region and that it will react firmly to any type of trespassing."
In an interview to the Iranian Student's News Agency, Boroujerdi said, "just as the relevant bodies reported, the British soldiers' entrance to Iranian waters was illegal, and is considered a violation of Iran's naval borders legally and internationally."
The Iranian news website Raja News, known for its association with President Ahmadinejad, said that "The government is determined to keep the soldiers and not give them up. A government source said that the soldiers will not be released until the British government publishes an official apology and gives a guarantee that such incidents won't happen again."
The website also said that the same source had confirmed that the soldiers were transferred to Tehran for questioning and that they were still in the hands of the military and not the government. The website quotes from Iranian law pertaining to situations wherein foreign troops illegally enter Iranian territory. The law dictates that the offenders be tried and their sentence carried out inside Iranian borders.
Due to the fact that the British soldiers were armed, if convicted they may face severe punishment.
On Saturday, Iran's top military official, General Ali Reza Afshar, said the seized soldiers, who were taken to Tehran for questioning, ''confessed to illegal entry'' and an ''aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters.'' Afshar did not say what would happen to the sailors.
Top general warns US, allies of starting war
Meanwhile the United States has bolstered its naval forces in the Persian Gulf in a show of strength directed at Iran. Afshar warned the United States would not be able to control the consequences if it attacks Iran: ''The United States and its allies know that if they make any mistake in their calculations ... they will not be able to control the dimensions and limit the duration of a war."
His comments seemed to echo that of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who earlier this week warned that Western countries ''must know that the Iranian nation and authorities will use all their capacities to strike enemies that attack.''
Some 500 Iranian students gathered on the shore near where the soldiers were captured, shouting ''Death to Britain'' and ''Death to America,'' the semiofficial Fars news agency reported.
Several conservative student groups urged the Iranian government not to release the sailors until five Iranian officials detained by US forces in northern Iraq earlier this year are freed, former Undersecretary of Defense General Ali Reza Asgari is released and the new draft of UN sanctions against Iran are dropped from the Security Council's agenda.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
