Tehran, June 24, IRNA -- Iran Thursday handed over to British diplomats here a group of eight Royal Navy crew whom it had detained for violating the country`s territorial waters. The group was flown in from southwestern town of Bandar Mahshahr aboard a chartered plane and at VIP section of Tehran`s Mehrabad airport, the soldiers were released to the care of the British embassy personnel.
From there, they were transferred to the British embassy in downtown Tehran. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stressed Thursday that the men were in `very good spirits` and had been well cared for. He welcomed the release and expressed his gratitude to help given by his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi. "I`m obviously very pleased indeed - as I know their families and service colleagues will be - about the fact that they now are in British care," Straw said.
"I`d like to express my thanks to my colleague, Iranian Foreign Minister Mr Kamal Kharrazi, for his assistance," the foreign secretary said at a brief news conference outside the Prime Minister`s office. The Foreign Office confirmed that the six Royal Marines and two Royal Navy commandos had arrived in Tehran, and said that they would be returned to their unit in Basra, southern Iraq, as soon as possible.
Straw was quoted saying that the question of the return of equipment, including three boats, was the subject of further talks. Asked about the state of relations between Britain and Iran, the foreign secretary said that his government `work hard` on the relationship but that it was sometimes `complicated`. "But I`m in no doubt that our policy of engagement with the Government of Iran and the Islamic People`s Republic of Iran is the best approach," he insisted.
The servicemen were held by Iran on Monday after their boats entered Iran`s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. Iran`s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the crew entered the Islamic Republic`s territorial waters and Iranian naval guards, acting upon their legal duty, seized the boats and detained their occupants. Their release followed Straw making a personal appeal to his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharrazi to look into the issue of the detention.
The Foreign Office on Monday told IRNA that the eight servicemen made a `mistake` when they violated Iranian waters while delivering a patrol boat to Iraq`s coastal guards. Britain`s Defense Ministry has refused to identify the men, but according to the BBC, the men are thought to come from two Scottish- based units, the 45 Commando and the Fleet Standby Rifle Troop, and from the 539 Assault Squadron based in Plymouth, south-west England.
The family of one of the Scottish members, Royal Marine David Kelly, was reported Thursday to have received a message through a British diplomat that he was `fine`. The friend of another marine, Chris Monon, from Cleveland in northern England, told the local Evening Gazette that he was `glad the incident happened in Iran and not Iraq`.
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