TEHRAN, Iran – Iran said Tuesday it could soon free eight British sailors seized on Monday along the border with Iraq if interrogations show they had “no bad intention,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The comments by Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, an Iranian armed forces spokesman, suggested a softening of earlier statements that the sailors would be prosecuted.
Iranian television at first showed the sailors blindfolded and seated cross-legged on the ground. Two of the sailors were later shown on state-run television Tuesday night, reading a statement of apology for entering Iran’s territorial waters and saying it was a mistake.
“My name is Sgt. Thomas Harkins from the British Royal Marines. I do apologize for entering Iranian territorial waters,” one of the men said.
The men were standing next to a river. The broadcast, on Arabic language Al-Alam television, also showed the three British military patrol boats and weapons it said had been confiscated from the sailors.
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman said British officials would remind Iran of its obligations under international law. “We will continue to underline to the Iranian government that we expect the people involved to be treated under the relevant international criteria,” the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
The Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Afshar as saying, “If the outcome of the interrogations of the British military men shows that they had no bad intention, they will be released soon.”
The sailors were detained Monday in the Shatt-al-Arab and accused of illegally entering Iran’s territorial waters as they were delivering a patrol boat for the new Iraqi river patrol service. The Shatt-al-Arab, known as the Arvand River in Iran, runs along the Iran-Iraq border.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw telephoned his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi on Tuesday to ask for the sailors’ release.
The British Defense Ministry said the sailors may have inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters. The Defense Ministry said the personnel were from the Royal Navy training team based in southern Iraq. They were delivering a boat from Umm Qasr to Basra, Iraq.
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