Iran's foreign minister backed off a prediction that a detained British servicewoman could be freed Wednesday or Thursday but said Tehran agreed to allow British officials to meet with 15 sailors and Marines in Iranian custody.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in an interview with the Associated Press that Britain must admit that its sailors entered Iranian waters for the standoff to be resolved.
His comments were the first confirmation that Iran agreed to a British request for a consular visit with the crew, though he did not specify when. Iran has not said where the 15 are being held.
"We have accepted that (the British request), there is no problem. Measures are underway (to arrange meeting.) They can meet them," he said.
Mottaki said that if the crew's alleged entry into Iranian waters was a mistake "this can be solved. But they have to show that it was a mistake, that will help us to end this issue."
"First they have to admit that they have made a mistake. Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem," Mottaki said in Riyadh, where he was a guest at a summit of Arab leaders. "But unfortunately the British have not admitted their mistake."
The British government protested Iran’s broadcast of the captured crew as “completely unacceptable.” The British military had earlier released what it called proof that its boats were in the territorial waters of Iraq — not Iran — when they were seized.
“Obviously we trespassed into their waters,” British sailor Faye Turney said on the video broadcast by Al-Alam, an Arabic-language, Iranian state-run television station that is carried across the Middle East.
“They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we’ve been arrested, there was no harm, no aggression,” she said.
Turney, 26, was shown eating with sailors and marines. At another point, she was seen sitting in a room with a floral curtains, smoking a cigarette.
“My name is leading sailman Faye Turney. I come from England. I have served in Foxtrot 99. I’ve been in the navy for nine years,” she said.
Turney was the only person to be shown speaking in the video.
It also showed what appeared to be a handwritten letter from Turney to her family. The letter said, in part, “I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering their waters.”
The video also showed a brief scene of what appeared to be the British crew sitting in an Iranian boat in open waters immediately after their capture.
Blair's office voices objections
Before the video was broadcast, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said any showing of British personnel on TV would be a breach of the Geneva Conventions.
“It’s completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement after the broadcast. “There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters.”
The statement also demanded that British diplomats be given immediate access to them as a “prelude” to their release.
Earlier, Iranian state TV quoted an unnamed Iranian official on Wednesday as saying the first, technical phase of an investigation into the detentions of the British sailors was complete and had determined they were "definitely" in Iranian waters when seized.
"This case is completely provable," the unnamed official was quoted as saying, "and British officials were also informed about it."
British remain cautious
A British diplomat in Tehran said the embassy had not heard anything officially about plans to release Turney.
He said Britain’s ambassador to Iran was now in a meeting with a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official, the third such meeting in as many days.
“We’ve had nothing officially,” he said.
The ISNA news agency earlier quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as saying: “This issue will be solved in a calm atmosphere. We can not predict how long it is going to take.”
The statement came shortly after Britain announced it would suspend bilateral business with Iran on all other issues until Tehran returns 15 British sailors and marines seized on Friday.
The Iranian government had not yet studied British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett’s announcement, Hosseini Matin, the Iranian Embassy’s first secretary, told The Associated Press.
The Iranian Embassy had earlier released a statement saying the dispute over the sailors captured in disputed waters could be resolved, but Matin said the situation may have changed.
“The new situation needs new review,” he said.
A British Foreign Office spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the bilateral freeze meant that all official inward and outward visits will be stopped, the issuance of visas to Iranian officials suspended, British support for other events such as trade missions to Iran are put on hold and there will be no government-to-government business on any other issue.
Blair calls for more pressure
Earlier, Blair said it was time to increase the pressure on Iran and the British military released what it said was proof that their boats were within Iraqi territorial waters when they were seized.
Britain’s military said that navy vessels were 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters when Iran seized the crew members.
Vice Admiral Charles Style told reporters that the Iranians had provided a position on Sunday — a location that he said was in Iraqi waters.
“It is hard to understand a legitimate reason for this change of coordinates,” Style said.
Britain and the United States have said the sailors and marines were intercepted Friday after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border between Iran and Iraq has been disputed for centuries.
Iran has said that the British sailors and marines were being treated well, but refused to say where they were being held, or rule out the possibility that they could be brought to trial for allegedly entering Iranian waters.
Echoes of past incident
In 2004 eight British sailors were captured as they were delivering a patrol boat to the Iraqi Riverine Patrol Service. Britain described the mission as "routine" but Iranian officials accused them entering Iranian waters illegally.
A day later, Iran announced that the soldiers would be put on trial, and Iranian television broadcast video of the soldiers blindfolded and sitting on the ground. Two of the sailors later read a statement of apology for entering Iran's territorial waters, saying it was a mistake.
The soldiers later told reporters they had been mistreated and subjected to mock executions.
The eight were eventually returned to British diplomats in Tehran, from where they were flown back to Iraq. Iran initially promised to return the seized boats, but later decided to keep them for display at Tehran's War Museum.
The Iranians also kept the crew's GPS equipment, and their coordinates have never been released.
