Vol. 71/No. 14      April 9, 2007

At the same time, tensions between London and Washington, on one hand, and Tehran, on the other, have heightened over the March 23 arrest of 15 British marines in the Arab-Persian Gulf that the Iranian Navy said it captured in Iranian waters.

Earlier, on December 23, the UN Security Council had adopted sanctions against Iran for continuing its program of uranium enrichment, a process necessary for creating fuel for nuclear reactors. If enriched at a higher grade, the fuel can also be used for atomic weapons. The Security Council warned of further sanctions if Tehran did not accede to its demand to cease uranium enrichment.

Washington, with the world’s largest nuclear arms stockpile, has led the charge for punitive action against Iran, asserting that the uranium enrichment is aimed at building nuclear arms. Tehran insists its nuclear program is designed for the peaceful purpose of developing the country’s economy and infrastructure.

“I can assure you that pressure and intimidation will not change Iranian policy,” Iran’s foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told the Security Council after the March 24 vote. “Suspension is neither an option nor a solution.”

U.S. undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns hailed the arms embargo contained in the new sanctions. He said it bans the export of Iranian weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Palestinian group Hamas, the Syrian government, or “to any state or terrorist organization.”

In a further blow against Iran, Moscow has backed out of its commitment to complete Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, which was to open this year. Initially Moscow claimed the reason was unpaid bills by Tehran. Subsequently, however, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Iranian officials “have to comply with international law. They have to obey the resolution of the Security Council” to suspend enrichment. On March 20, Moscow confirmed it had withdrawn 2,000 workers and technicians from Bushehr. As a member of the UN Security Council, Moscow voted for the December 23 and the March 24 sanctions against Iran.

On March 23, the day before the Security Council imposed its new sanctions, Iranian armed forces detained 15 British navy personnel in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, near the southern border between Iraq and Iran. There is an unresolved territorial dispute between the two states over that area.

According to Tehran, the British troops had illegally entered Iranian waters. London countered that its marines—who had just searched a merchant ship in the waterway—were in Iraqi waters when confronted.

British prime minister Tony Blair said Tehran “should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which was unjustified and wrong.”

The British big-business press started clamoring for swifter action against Iran. “Their kidnapping is an outrage,” said an editorial in the March 27 London Times, referring to the 15 British troops now held in Iran. “In earlier times it would have been an immediate casus belli. It would fully justify the use of force to obtain their release.” It condemned “the pusillanimous timidity of British officials and politicians, who have failed disgracefully to confront Iran with the ultimatum this flagrant aggression demands.”

On March 28 the British foreign ministry announced that London has frozen all official contacts with Tehran until its 15 soldiers are returned.

The day before, the U.S. Navy began a major military exercise in the Gulf, bringing together two strike groups of warships, more than 100 warplanes, and 10,000 troops. It is the biggest show of force in the Gulf since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
 
 
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Lift all sanctions against Iran!  
 
 
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