Former British diplomat says Iran's arrest of British SAS terrorists was legitimate under international law (REPOST)

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IRNA
March 26, 2007

Iran's arrest of sailors was legitimate, says former UK envoy

London -- Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray
(http://www.craigmurray.co.uk) Monday supported Iran's decision to
arrest 15 UK marines in the Persian Gulf last week.

"In international law the Iranian government were not out of order in
detaining foreign military personnel in waters to which they have a
legitimate claim", Murray said, who was also a previous head of
Foreign Office's maritime section, carrying out negotiations on the UN
Convention on the Law of the Sea.

"For the Royal Navy, to be interdicting shipping within the twelve
mile (20-km) limit of territorial seas in a region they know full well
is subject to maritime boundary dispute, is unnecessarily
provocative", he said.

The former envoy said that this was "especially true as apparently
they were not looking for weapons but for smuggled vehicles attempting
to evade car duty".

"What has the evasion of Iranian or Iraqi taxes go to do with the
Royal Navy?" he questioned in comments on his webpage, set up after he
was sacked from his post in 2004 after criticizing British foreign
policy.

While working for the Foreign Office, Murray was also head of the UK's
Embargo Surveillance Centre, analyzing Iraqi attempts to evade
sanctions and providing information to UK military forces and to other
governments to effect physical enforcement of the embargo.

He said that under international law, Britain would have been allowed
to enter Iranian territorial waters if in "hot pursuit" of terrorists,
slavers or pirates. But added "they weren't doing any of those
things".

"Plainly, they were not engaged in piracy or in hostilities against
Iran. The Iranians can feel content that they have demonstrated the
ability to exercise effective sovereignty over the waters they claim",
the former envoy said.

He criticized the "ridiculous logic" of Prime Minister Tony Blair,
saying he was creating a mess that "gets us further into trouble". The
Daily Mirror, which has been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq war,
reminded its readers Monday that "if the UK had never joined the
disastrous invasion of Iraq, the 15 would not have been put in a
position where they could be seized".

In its editorial on the incident, it also said that "U.S. threats in
the recent past to launch military strikes on Iran have inflamed
tensions".

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1318.html



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