What should the UK do if Iran puts their saiolrs and marines on trial?

Question

According to Tony Blair the British Marines and Sailors were NOT in Iranian waters and were well within their rights to be there - everyone knew this from the start.

If Iran puts the soldiers on trial in an Iranian court - sharia law - what should Britain do? What if the soldiers are convicted and sentenced to jail - in Iran?

What should Britain do?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070325/ap_on_re_mi_ea/british_seized_iran

Answer 1

This is just psychological warfare. The sailors are being used as barganing chips in a sad little game of east-west poker. The east will see this as Iran sticking-up for itself against huge odds and biased international law, the west will see it as the legitimate lionising of a rogue state. There will be much oohing and aahing, but I expect the sailors to be released in weeks rather than months or years. If they are not, there isn't much UK can do, other than encourage others to sanction Iran.

Answer 2

Tony Blair will warn the Iranians that if they don't release the British pesonnel.................he will warn them again.

Lol.

Who on this earth would believe one word that Tony Blair would say.......you obviously.

Have you not heard enough of Tony Blair's lies....still deluded, wake up .

Iran has every right to detain foreign military personnel in Iranian waters (only Tony and the British press consider the waters to be not Iranian).

Answer 3

well we know mr blair cannot be believed at all,especially after the weapons of mass destruction lies,the sailors should not been in iraq,let alone iran,we know usa and britain are looking for any excuse to bomb iran,i even asked sevral weeks ago on yahoo when will they be bombing iran,i think it will be very decent of the iranians to put them on trial,far more civilised than sticking them in gauntanamo for five years without trial and being tortured,lets hope its a fairer trial than saddam had, there is not much britain can do they only have a small army and most of them are in iraq and afganistan,of course the americans are behind this i think we all know the outcome,and if i am right i am concerned that the middle east will want revenge,im english born an bred,white and catholic in case any one thinks im a muslim.

Answer 4

There are a lot more than 15 Iranians living in the UK!
Knowing the British public it wouldn't be wise for Iran to do anything other than release the 15 troops unharmed!

Answer 5

well the 1st time it happened in 2004 the defence secretary geoff hoon said "we do not expect a recurrence of this type of incident" when he realised there was nothing britain could do. britain failed to secure the return of expensive positioning equipment that they said would have shown the marines were not in iranian waters. iran is still displaying the boats seized on that occasion at a military museum in Tehran.
now 3 years on it has happened again and it looks kind of bleak.

Answer 6

In my opinion if Iran uses the captured marines in some sort of political two and fro show trial, then The UK should close it embassy in Tehran and order the closer of Iranian embassy in London.. that's about all we can do..The united nations are a waste of time, and its not really sensible to take military action over 15 military personnel.

Answer 7

Maybe Britain should join the rest of the world and condemn the guantanamo bay. Hillarious seeing the way the US and its allies stand up for guantanamo - no access to lawyers, no rights - but condemn Iran.

Answer 8

The sad thing about this is that the Iranians have the soldiers and there is nothing that any one can do.i feel so sorry for there loved one so lets hope and pray that they keep strong and that Iranians wont be to hard on them after all they were only doing there job.the same as there soldiers.

Answer 9

Well, in the good old days of course, we'd have sent in the gunboat...

but those days are gone... nowadays we'd have to rely on diplomatic pressure from the EU and the US ...

That's one of the advantages of full EU membership, we get the support of all the EU member nations in something like this... except when we start a war of course...

I personally think they won't be put on trial... in my view the group that engineered the 'arrests' (from their point of view) or 'kidnapping' (from our perspective) are trying to put pressure on the government of Iran to see things their way regarding Irans moves towards good relations with the West.

But who knows... we shall see in the coming days when the holiday ends eh

Philip

Answer 10

Make diplomatic efforts to sort things out, and give them free legal representation. Offer compensation to Iran, effectively buy their freedom. And back off on the "you shouldn't have nuclear" front. Offer them Tony as an exchange, and we'll throw in Prescott for free.