U.S. rejects exchange of captives with Iran

U.S. rejects exchange of captives with Iran

www.cnn.com

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- U.S. officials say they have ruled out a possible deal to exchange the 15 British Royal Navy personnel captured by Iran for five Iranians held by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Reports that such a swap could take place were wrong, U.S. State department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Friday.

"The international community is not going to stand for the Iranian government trying to use this issue to distract the rest of the world from the situation in which Iran finds itself vis-a-vis its nuclear program," McCormack said.

The five Iranians are reported to be members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized in Irbil, Iraq, in January.

Tehran is continuing to defy international pressure to release the sailors and Royal Marines as the crisis enters its ninth day.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
British PM warns Iranians only have a few days
Are we hours away from war with Iran??
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ED:added ATS thread link



[edit on 2007/3/31 by JacKatMtn]

Well I guess the rumors of a possible exchange have been quashed with this report.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Im almost positive a poster here brought up this hostage swap idea being proposed by iran.wonder if they were looking to ambush some westerners just for this

Originally posted by Xfile
Im almost positive a poster here brought up this hostage swap idea being proposed by iran.wonder if they were looking to ambush some westerners just for this

I think that may have been me. I did say in another related thread that the Iranians would be likely to incentivise the Brit in to asking the U.S. for a prisoners swap...which they knew we would say 'no' to.

Originally posted by Justin Oldham

Originally posted by Xfile
Im almost positive a poster here brought up this hostage swap idea being proposed by iran.wonder if they were looking to ambush some westerners just for this

I think that may have been me. I did say in another related thread that the Iranians would be likely to incentivise the Brit in to asking the U.S. for a prisoners swap...which they knew we would say 'no' to.

I do recall that now justin.Great foresight on that call man!

That's my job. It's what I do. I shall now go and polish my CM badge.

Why should they, (the US that is), make a swap of detainees, if they were American servicemen/women, then maybe the US would consider, as it is British Servicemen/women, then this really has nothing to do with those captured by the Americans......

Originally posted by spencerjohnstone
this really has nothing to do with those captured by the Americans......

You should come over to my house with lots of money so that we can play poker.

What you see on the t.v. isn't the whole story. There's a much larger game being played. As they "negotiate" with the Iranians, the U,K. will be saying and doing things that none of us will know about until after the fact.

As a matter of simple tactics, the Iranians will start off by asking for something that they KNOW the British cannot give. Then, it starts to get interesting...