DAR AL HARB / ISLAM - U.S.A./U.K./IRAN: DIPLOMACY OR A DEAL ?!?

Diplomacy or a deal - how the standoff ended

· Hint of US concession on Iranians held in Iraq
· Syria claims to have played leading role

by Julian Borger, Michael Howard in Baghdad, Robert Tait in Tehran

The release of the 15 Britons was a "gift" to the British people to celebrate the birth of the prophet Muhammad and Easter, according to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It also came two hours after an American general revealed the US might allow Iranian diplomats to visit five countrymen arrested in Iraq three months ago.

The timing has fuelled speculation of a deal to free the British sailors and marines seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. In a further coincidence, yesterday's unexpected announcement came a day after the mysterious release of another Iranian diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, kidnapped in Baghdad at the beginning of the year by gunmen in Iraqi government uniforms.

The 13-day crisis was enveloped in a fog of secret diplomacy and informal talks. The Syrians claim to have played a leading role in persuading Iran of the foolishness in detaining the Britons any longer. Iran's decision may have been the culmination of many reasons, but observers say Tehran must have been convinced it was in its interests to give up its bargaining chips.

The existence of a deal was denied by all involved. George Bush insisted there would be no "quid pro quo". British officials said they had Iranian assurances a prisoner swap was not on the agenda, and President Ahmadinejad was adamant the release was for "humanitarian reasons".

Yesterday the Iraqi foreign minister, who appears to have played a critical go-between role, added his voice to the chorus of denial. "The British media are linking it as if it is part of bargain with Iran to release the British sailors and marines. It has no connection whatsoever", Hoshyar Zebari told The Guardian yesterday.

Mr Zebari said he had asked the US military to grant consular access to the Iranian diplomats (known as the "Irbil five" after the town in which they were arrested) in a bid to "ease the atmosphere" between Iran and the US at the time of last month's Baghdad security conference.
The US military spokesman, Major General William Caldwell said authorities were considering the request for access.

A source close to the Revolutionary Guards gave a different account. The fate of the Irbil five was not a motive for the capture, he said, but it did become a negotiating point after the event. "Officially there is no swap. But there should not be a double standard. You want access [to your prisoners]. We want access [to ours]."

He provided the first comprehensive Iranian version of events on March 23 when the 15 Britons were captured by Revolutionary Guard sailors on the shallow seas of the northern Gulf. Not only had the British patrol strayed into Iranian waters, he claimed, but it was at least the fourth such incursion in three months.

"They came to our waters before ... at least three times," the Iranian source said. "We gave them notice that you shouldn't be. We didn't use aggressive methods. We didn't shoot [across the British bows]. Both sides know the sensitive atmosphere."

The source explained that the Britons had been captured by low-ranking Revolutionary Guards, but once arrested, their release required intervention on a higher level. That was delayed by the No Rouz (new year) holidays which only ended on Tuesday. "Junior people got them, but only senior people could let them go, and they can only let them go after an investigation," he said. During No Rouz, he added, "everyone is in the villages and mobile phones don't work there."

The US refusal to exclude the use of military force against Iran to stop its nuclear programme, together with a series of separatist attacks in Iran's border regions had put the Revolutionary Guard on alert for incursions. "They are on a yellow state of readiness," the source said. "We don't believe the British intent is to start a war, but America has said it is on the table."

The investigation into the incident would have run its course and the Britons would have been released, but the affair was complicated by Tony Blair's decision to take the matter to the UN security council last Wednesday, he added.

Analysts in Tehran said the British crew provided a convenient tool for the Iranian government at a time it was casting around for a means to strike back against an Anglo-American policy of isolation.

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Bilateral talks on disputed Gulf waters on agenda
by Richard Norton-Taylor

Britain is ready to discuss with Iran the whole question of territorial waters in the northern Gulf, the issue which was ostensibly the cause of the crisis, military officials said yesterday. "Who claims what waters needs to be resolved; there's no legal binding agreement," observed a senior defence source.

But before that the 15 sailors and marines seized by Iranian revolutionary guards will be debriefed, the navy will conduct a postmortem and a board of inquiry will be set up. They will address a host of questions, not least about training and the rules of engagement, defence officials admitted.

They will look again at Iran's claims that the crew of two British boats which boarded the Indian-flagged merchant vessel 13 days ago were in Iranian waters. "If the incident occurred where the MoD claims, the British position appears strong but there are sufficient uncertainties over boundary definition to make it inadvisable to state categorically that the vessel was in Iraqi waters at the time of the arrest," said Martin Pratt, of Durham University's International Boundaries Research Unit.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, said yesterday that the British government had "sent a letter to the foreign ministry pledging that it [entering Iranian waters] will not happen again".

However, the navy continues to insist that its boats and their mother ship, the frigate HMS Cornwall, were in Iraqi waters. GPS (global positioning system) satellite tracking of the vessels will be available to the board of inquiry, defence officials said. Iranian officials told the Guardian yesterday that British vessels had entered Iranian waters three times in the past three months and that Iranian naval crews had warned them about the infringements. "We are unaware of any such claims," a spokesman for the Royal Navy taskforce in the Gulf said.

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Pertinent Links:

1) Diplomacy or a deal - how the standoff ended

2) Bilateral talks on disputed Gulf waters on agenda