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International News Title: Iran seizes 15 British Navy personnel BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iranian forces seized 15 British Royal Navy personnel who had searched a merchant ship on Friday, Britain said, triggering a diplomatic crisis at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Britain said the incident took place in Iraqi waters, where it routinely searches merchant vessels with UN permission. In London, Foreign Office Permanent Undersecretary Sir Peter Ricketts summoned Iranian ambassador Rasoul Movahedian. A spokesman said: "The meeting was brisk but cordial. Sir Peter demanded the safe return of our personnel and equipment." The incident took place a day after Iran launched a week of naval war games along its coast, including the narrow northern reaches of the Gulf which control access to the vast oil reserves of Iraq, Iran and Kuwait. "This may well be a misunderstanding. We're certainly treating it as such at the moment. We're looking for the mistake to be corrected," said a British government source. Oil prices rose by about a percent to above $62 a barrel after the incident. Britain's Defense Ministry said the 15 were engaged in "routine boarding operations" when they were captured. "The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters," it said in a statement. Unlike the United States, Britain has diplomatic relations with Iran. But London backs Washington's calls for tough sanctions against Iran unless it abandons nuclear plans which the Western countries believe are aimed at producing weapons. The two countries also accuse Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq. Iran insists its nuclear plans are peaceful and denies it supports militia in Iraq. "Hopefully there has been a mistake that has been made and we will see early clarification and an early release of my people," Commodore Nick Lambert, commander of the British fleet in the area, said in a television interview aboard HMS Cornwall. "There was no fighting, no engagement of weapons, anything like that, it was entirely peaceful. We have been assured from the scant communication we have had with the Iranians at a tactical level that the 15 people are safely in their hands." The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote on Saturday on a resolution to impose new sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The embassy in London was closed for a holiday. An Iraqi fisherman in Basra, who asked not to be named, told Reuters he had seen the incident in the Shatt al-Arab waterway that marks the southern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran. He said Western military personnel on two small boats had boarded a ship in the Siban area of the waterway, near the al-Faw peninsula that leads into the northern Gulf. At least two Iranian vessels appeared on the scene and detained them. British Royal Navy personnel include both sailors and marines, who make up boarding parties for ship searches as part of a mission that also includes U.S. and Australian forces. Washington said no U.S. military personnel were involved. The incident was similar to one in 2004 in which eight British servicemen spent three nights in the hands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards before being released unharmed. In that incident, the Iranians accused them of crossing into Iranian waters, which Britain disputed. (Additional reporting by Peter Graff, Sophie Walker, Randy Fabi in London and Ross Colvin in Baghdad)
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#1. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Iran is merely following Booosh's example of "pre-emptive" measures.
"If I thought this war was to abolish slavery, I would resign my commission, and offer my sword to the other side." --Ulysses S. Grant
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