Detention of naval personnel by Iran
Summary
In March 2007, eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal
Marines were seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Shatt al-Arab
waterway.
This Report
‘Foreign
policy aspects of the detention of naval personnel by the Islamic Republic of
Iran’ (HC 880) examines the UK Government's diplomatic handling of the
incident.
Issues discussed include:
- Iran's
objectives and strategy during this incident
- The Government's
diplomatic strategy
- The role of regional states and the United States
- The sale of stories by captured personnel to the media
- The
value of diplomacy to resolve such incidents.
Found this
story interesting?
Spread the news by clicking below to add it to
your bookmarking service:
How does
it affect me?
If you are interested in UK foreign policy in respect of
Iran or the relationship between the armed forces and the media, this affects
you.
Amongst its findings, the Report condemns the treatment of the
British personnel by Iranian authorities as unacceptable, particularly the use
of public confessions and its refusal to grant consular access to detainees.
It broadly supports the Government's dual-track diplomatic approach
against Iran but criticises the Government's failure to engage with the
appropriate interlocutors within the Iranian regime at a sufficiently early
stage.
The Committee also finds that the Ministry of Defence's decision
to allow returning detainees to sell their stories to the media displayed a
disturbing lack of judgement and calls on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
to state in its response to the report who took the decision to give
authorisation.
Overall, the Committee supports the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office’s overall approach during the crisis, despite some
tactical mistakes, and argues that the incident shows the value of diplomacy to
resolve a crisis peacefully.
Find out more about the work of the
House
of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.
See more on the
Ministry of Defence
website.
See more on the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office website.