Background
The team of eight sailors and seven Royal Marines in two rigid-hulled inflatable boats from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall had been searching a merchant dhow for smuggled automobiles when they were detained at roughly 10:30 Iraqi time (07:30 GMT; 11:00 Iranian time) by the crews of two Iranian boats; a further six Iranian boats then assisted in the seizure. The British personnel were subsequently taken to an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran for questioning. Iranian officials claimed that the British sailors were in Iranian waters. A University of Durham analysis of the initial Iranian identification of the location of the boats showed that the position given was in Iraqi waters. According to the Ministry of Defence, the Iranians allegedly issued a "corrected" location, which placed the boats in Iranian waters.
Information provided by Britain initially consistently placed the boats in Iraqi waters. However, the subsequent report by the House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Select Committee confirmed that the Ministry of Defence map presented to the worldwide media was "inaccurate" as it presented a boundary line when no maritime boundary between the two countries has been agreed upon, and so "The Government was fortunate that it was not in Iran's interests to contest the accuracy of the map.” The Foreign Affairs Committee also criticised the government for failing to contact a key Iranian negotiator in a timely manner. Reports in April 2008 citing documents from the MoD inquiry into the incident state that the British sailors captured by Iran were in disputed waters, that the US-led coalition had drawn a boundary line between Iran and Iraq without informing the Iranians, and that Iranian coastal protection vessels regularly crossed this coalition defined boundary.
The British government stated that the team had been conducting a compliance inspection of a merchant ship under the mandate of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1723. The merchantman had aroused the suspicion of a Royal Navy helicopter while moving along the Shatt al-Arab waterway. HMS Cornwall was part of the British contribution to multinational forces engaged in the Iraq War.
Intense diplomatic efforts were made to secure the release of the detainees. On 28 March 2007 television channels around the world showed footage released by the Iranian government of some of the 15 British sailors. This included a statement by captured Royal Navy sailor Faye Turney, along with a letter she wrote under compulsion, which apologised for British intrusions into Iranian waters. Over the next two days a further video was shown on Iranian television displaying three of the detained Britons and two further letters, again attributed to Faye Turney, were released, again claiming the British boats were in Iranian waters. Iran stated that an apology from British officials would "facilitate" the release of the personnel.
Read more about this topic: 2007 Iranian Seizure Of Royal Navy Personnel
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