15 captured Britons confessed violating territory, Iran claims

An Iranian official accused Britain of trying to cover up an incursion.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran claimed Saturday that 15 British sailors and marines had confessed entering its waters in an act of "blatant aggression," an escalation of Tehran's rhetoric over the confrontation.
The British Foreign Office summoned Iran's ambassador for the second time in two days, saying an under-secretary had spent more than an hour in "frank and civil" talks demanding the safe return of the sailors and Royal Marines, and seeking assurances about their welfare and access to British consular officials.
Iran's top military official, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, said the sailors and marines were moved to Tehran and under interrogation "confessed to illegal entry" and an "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters." Afshar did not say what would happen to the sailors.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini accused the British of "violating the sovereign boundaries" of Iran, calling the entry a "blatant aggression."
He accused Britain of trying to cover up the incursion, saying it should "refrain from putting the blame on others."
Warns against blackmail
British opposition lawmakers called on the government not to allow Iran to use the capture of the military personnel as a tool in the nuclear dispute.
"The United Kingdom will not be blackmailed. Iran has a choice: to act responsibly, or face greater isolation," said Menzies Campbell, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats.
The British sailors had just searched a merchant ship Friday morning when they and their two inflatable boats were intercepted by Iranian vessels near the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway, U.S. and British officials said. The Iranians surrounded them and escorted them away at gunpoint.
Britain immediately demanded the return of the eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Royal Marines -- at least one was a woman -- and denied they had strayed into Iranian waters while searching for smugglers off Iraq's coast.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and the Ministry of Defense said the troops were in Iraqi waters when they were seized.
Iranian hard-liners have already called for the 15 Britons to be held until Iran wins concessions from the West.
The Britons were seized in an area where the boundaries of Iraqi and Iranian waters have long been disputed. A 1975 treaty set the center of the Shatt al-Arab -- the 125-mile-long channel known in Iran as the Arvand River -- as the border.
But Saddam Hussein canceled that treaty five years later and invaded Iran, triggering an eight-year war. Virtually all of Iraq's oil is exported through an oil terminal near the mouth of the channel.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.