UK nationals stopped by Iranian navy

UK nationals stopped by Iranian navy

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LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Foreign Office says that a racing yacht carrying five U.K. nationals has been stopped by Iranian naval vessels, and they are now in Iran.

Government officials said Monday that the yacht may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters when it was stopped last Wednesday.

The British government says the yacht with a crew of five is owned by Sail Bahrain.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redi

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I guess they have to be of the extreme defensive here, regardless who is floating through their terrotorial waters.

I doubt much will come of this...

They captured British soldiers a few years ago, and immediately released them.
Not much to bargain with.. Release them, or we'll come get them.


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[edit on 30-11-2009 by CanadianDream420]

reply to post by CanadianDream420


I guess it`s a little insurance against anything happening to Iran whilst they are wards of the state .

You would want to be fairly naive not to factor in past incidents in Iranian territorial waters , going on such an excursion .

The yacht, owned by Sail Bahrain and crewed by the five Britons, was stopped by Iranian naval vessels last Wednesday.

ITN News

Last Wednesday ???

Presumably there has been diplomatic contact between the Iranians and the British over the past few days considering it was last wednesday that the incident tock place. One can only surmise that those discussions collapsed and round two will take place through the media.



Edit:spelling
[edit on 30-11-2009 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 30-11-2009 by UmbraSumus]

The incident a few years since was actually 15 sailors & marines on patrol in international waters... and lasted about 2 weeks

since then the Iranians have arrested about 12 loacl workers in the British Embassy in Iran all were eventuall released, and only one was charged with spying offences

This story is no great surprise in the same week that the Iranians have announced their Nuclear expansion plans, it's obviously designed as a deflection / bargaining ploy, keeping them at the top of everyones agenda

If a US Navy or Warship from another country strayed into Iranian waters, then you could say they had no excuses given that they have millions of pounds of navigation kit on board.

But a sailing boat with 5 people going over the invisible line at sea is hardly any kind of threat to their country, what a complete joke!

This is obviously some stupid game the Mr Pyjama is playing with the media and I don't think it is going to do him any favours with his recent press announcement of 10 more Nuclear Plants.

What plonkers!!

Just a casual observation,


What happened to the skippers

GPS

Good clean politics, don't you just enjoy the way the game is played.

These stories are always suspicious to me. For example, those hikers that accidentally crossed into Iran over the Iraq border... who the heck goes hiking in southern Iraq? Then you have the Jundallah attacking Iran, allegedly funded and trained by the US. I'm not saying that these stories are most certainly indicative of covert operations, but it makes one wonder...

Iran is always suspicious of Britsh activities in the region, mabye even more so than that of the Americans. It all stems from our long history of influence, control and intrigue in the country, including the 1954 Coup.

Hopefully they will be released soon and and nothing will come of it, though i can see much political hay being made on both sides here.

Originally posted by minkey53

But a sailing boat with 5 people going over the invisible line at sea is hardly any kind of threat to their country, what a complete joke!

Then you must have completely missed the events in Mumbai last year were a dinghy filled with less than ten men stormed the beach and resulted in dozens and dozens of deaths at the hands of the Pakistani terrorists as they used automatic weapons on innocent civilians.

I think this is britian intentionally trying to harass iran! telling these yachtmen to sail on a specified route , aparently they are all briefed by security companies linked to the home office , im sure that this has been designed to harass iran and further increase tension to make iran make a move to coerce them into angrily making a mistake which could lead to war !

just a thought

olly smith, sam usher, oliver young, luke porter and dave bloomer

are the people that have been stopped by the iran navy

reply to post by thecrow001


Is this the same Olly Smith from BBC's Breakfast and Saturday's Kitchen?

Guess we don't have to chock this up to Gulf of Tonkin part 2 after all!

reply to post by Someone336


I agree. the first thing I thought when i read this story was - "special Forces"

same as the hikers too.

Its all designed to stoke up tensions and make Iran out to be the bad boy. Keeps the country in the news thats for sure.

reply to post by Someone336


yes it is, if i saw the news right. hes an old dude right white hair glasses.


ok hes not that old but older.
should this change anything ?

[edit on 30-11-2009 by thecrow001]

reply to post by minkey53

But a sailing boat with 5 people going over the invisible line at sea is hardly any kind of threat to their country, what a complete joke!

Is it? That's my favorite mode of transportation for getting in and out of countries without going through customs!

Do you think spies only travel first class on British Air once Money Penny gets the ticket sent to MI6?

Given all the intervention by foreign interlopers in Iran recently I would say it's prudent to detain these 5 people, waterboard them, and keep them at a remote island prison indefinately and not let them have lawyers or a day in civilian and military court.

Sounds kind of harsh doesn't it? That's what we do here in the United States.

Who knows maybe 8 to 10 years from now these people can have trials in down town Tehran if they aren't considered too dangerous to jail in the city center!

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


You seem to defend Iran no matter what. These were not super-secret spies -- they were freakin' yacht racers.

And I don't believe that Iran is forced to detain whomever they choose simply because of the atrocities of Israel and the United States.

Some people actually are just boaters. And hikers. And journalists. Not everybody that goes to -- or even near -- Iran is some super spy sent by zionists to overthrow Ahmadinejad.

Originally posted by lpowell0627
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

You seem to defend Iran no matter what. These were not super-secret spies -- they were freakin' yacht racers.

And I don't believe that Iran is forced to detain whomever they choose simply because of the atrocities of Israel and the United States.

Some people actually are just boaters. And hikers. And journalists. Not everybody that goes to -- or even near -- Iran is some super spy sent by zionists to overthrow Ahmadinejad.

You don't know who those people are my friend. Why pretend that you do.

Personally there are a lot nicer places to go yachting than the Persian Gulf especially along the Iranian Coast. I would Recommend the Mediterranean around Sardinia or the Caribbean, or even Fiji! Iran? No!

Now the real big boys climb mountains in Nepal like Everest, though the Matterhorn is quite romantic and challenging and even Mr. Reiner and Hood here in the United States…Iran? No!

Me when I am thinking of having fun in fact the last place I look for it is within the borders of a religious theocracy.

For instance I don’t go looking for swinger’s clubs and strip joints in Pennsylvania Amish Country but hey that’s just me I am real pragmatic when it comes to those kinds of things.

Clearly those people on the boat Were spies or agent provocateurs and with the Zionist and Western Propaganda War currently being waged against Iran currently it’s wise for the Iranians to pick them up and detain them and question them at length for being possible spies or terrorists.

The reality is in this day and age of Global Positioning Navigation that even little 25 foot fishing boats are now equipped with its cheap and easy to use technology, these people clearly strayed into Iranian waters deliberately and the Iranians would be well served to investigate why.

Down with imperialism!

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


"Clearly they were spies"

what a load of old tosh!......where's your evidence of this?

They were on their way to compete in the Gulf yacht race.........some people see conspiracies in every story!

it works both ways.

Imagine if some random iranian boat came close to british or god forbid american shores

I think some of you in this thread would be playing a different tune if they did

reply to post by thecrow001


Probably not then. This is the BBC's Olly Smith: