Iran releases British sailors
April 4th, 2007 by ashish
In a sudden development, Iran has released 15 British sailors that were seized by the Iranian navy on March 23rd, while claiming that they were captured in Iranian territorial waters. Both the British and the Iraqis deny this, stating that the capture happened in Iraqi waters.
The tension on this issue was rapidly scaling up. Britain obviously could not accept the fact that its sailors were kept by Iran, denied consular access and threatened with a trial (and possible imprisonment). This was happening at the same time that Iran had been hit with sanctions over the nuclear issue. Such escalation of tension would surely not have been welcomed by the clerics who actually run the country. The President has to consolidate his power, so he can afford to increase the tension to gain domestic support; but the clerics who actually control the power in the country cannot afford to let the tension and international isolation grow to the extent that Iran starts to get affected economically.
The time is ripe to keep on expoliting these differences in order to bring some sense of stability and right behaviour by the Iranian regime.
