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British yachtsmen freed by Iran, says state radio
Release comes after David Miliband says their detention has ‘nothing to do with politics’
The five British yachtsmen taken captive by the Iranian navy on November 25 after they inadvertently strayed into Iran's waters have been freed, Iranian state radio reported this morning.
Their release comes within hours of Foreign Secretary David Miliband speaking by phone to his Iranian counterpart. He called for their "prompt release" and insisted the crew's detention had "nothing to do with politics".
This was in the face of Iranian threats that the men would be harshly treated "if we find out they had evil intentions".
The five men were Oliver Young, Olly Smith, Luke Porter, Sam Usher and David Bloomer. They were captured by Revolutionary Guards while sailing their 60ft yacht across the Persian Gulf from Bahrain to Dubai where they were due to take part in a race.
The men's release puts to an end fears of a humiliating repeat of the incident in 2007 when 15 sailors and marines from HMS Cornwall were captured and paraded on Iranian TV.
It was also feared they might be used as bargaining chips in the continuing standoff between the West and Tehran over President Ahmadinejad's nuclear ambitions. Last week it was announced that the Iranian government was planning to build 10 further uranium enrichment sites, to the fury of London and Washington. ·
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Whilst pleased they are all safe I still feel a little annoyed that so much government time, and I guess expense, was taken up as a consequence of people not taking as much care as they should have (as seems to have been the case).
I think the people at the top read too much into Iran's defence of their soveriegn waters.
If an Iranian gunboat sailed up the Thames Estuary it would like be detained; the difference would be that we'd never hear about it due to a news blackout.