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LONDON - Britain said today it had proposed direct bilateral talks with Iran to resolve the standoff over Tehran's seizure of 15 British military personnel, and that it believed both countries wanted an early resolution.
The statement from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office followed comments on Monday by the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, that he believed bilateral diplomacy could resolve the dispute quickly.
Britain said it had contacts on Tuesday with Iran, including Larijani, and was waiting for a response to its proposal.
"On the basis of these, the prime minister believes that both sides share a desire for an early resolution of this issue through direct talks," said a statement issued by Blair's office.
"The prime minister remains committed to resolving this by diplomatic means," said the statement.
"The UK has proposed direct bilateral discussions and awaits an Iranian response on when these can begin."
Plot
Iranian dailies agreed that Britain was scheming and had sent its sailors into Iranian waters to pressure Iran.
After national holidays that left news stands bare for two weeks, most Iranian dailies returned to cover a row that blew up in their absence.
Britain's actions are rarely taken at face value in Iran, where the former imperial power has a long history of involvement in Iranian politics, fuelling deep suspicions that cut across social classes and political factions.
"The illegal entry of British soldiers to Iran's territorial waters was a preplanned scenario aiming to put more pressure on the Islamic Republic," said Hossein Shariatmadari, editor of the hardline Kayhan, quoted by another conservative daily, Resalat.
Iran says the Britons, detained on March 23, were seized in its territory but Britain says they were in Iraqi waters. The two sides are now engaged in sensitive diplomacy to try to resolve the standoff.
"The arrest of these 15 caused this wave of propaganda against Tehran," wrote the moderate daily Etemad-e Melli, also referring to Britain's "preplanned scenario" to justify "non-diplomatic measures" against Iran in a dispute over Iran's nuclear program and what London calls Iran's meddling in Iraq.
Iran dismisses such charges.
Where newspapers differed, however, was on the next steps, reflecting a debate between hardliners who see an opportunity for a show of strength against a Western power and moderates who think the row will only complicate Iran's problems abroad.
"A legal and firm confrontation with the British aggressors is the only way to pursue," wrote Jomhuri-ye Eslami.
But Etemad-e Melli called for cooler heads, saying: "Iran should be wise and avoid adopting any measure which could provoke international public opinion against Iran and should neutralise Britain's preplanned scenarios."
Critical time
The British government said the next 48 hours would be critical in the diplomatic crisis with Iran.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett stressed the importance of diplomacy rather than military intervention.
"I would urge you to be cautious in assuming that we are likely to see a very swift resolution to this issue," she told reporters. "We are not seeking confrontation. We are seeking to pursue this through diplomatic channels."
The crisis between the two countries began when Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized the sailors on March 23 in the northern Gulf, where the British navy has been searching shipping in an effort to prevent smuggling.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said yesterday he believed bilateral diplomacy could resolve the crisis quickly. Britain responded by saying it too would like early talks to end the row.
"This is a very critical time and the most important thing is that we get our people back safe and sound ..." British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters.
"The next 48 hours will be fairly critical," he told a radio station in Scotland.
Oil prices tumbled nearly US$2 on hopes of a diplomatic end to the crisis, after an apparent lack of progress had stoked fears that supplies from the Gulf could be affected.
US President George W. Bush said the tension over the seizure of the British sailors by Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter, had "spooked" crude oil prices.
The dispute centres on where the sailors were when they were seized. Britain insists they were in Iraqi waters on a routine UN mission, but Tehran says they were in its waters.
"We can definitely see a diplomatic solution on the horizon," said Ali Ansari, director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
"It seems to me that what is in the offing is a delegation of some sort will go to Tehran, to ... reassure the Iranians that there will be a mechanism in place to ensure that this will not happen again."
Experts on international borders say the boundary between Iranian and Iraqi waters in the Shatt al-Arab waterway is poorly defined, which may give Britain and Iran room to "agree to disagree".
Diplomat freed
British moves to get the international community to condemn Iran angered Tehran, and Britain has criticised the parading of its military personnel on Iranian television, saying broadcasts showing them admitting their guilt had been forced on them.
Iran said today the row could be resolved soon if London continued its "changed behaviour" and accepted that its sailors and marines had entered Iranian waters illegally.
Larijani left the door open for discussion about whether the sailors had strayed into Iranian waters by saying a "delegation" should be sent to clarify the issue.
Bush said Iran's seizure of the sailors was "indefensible" and there should be no conditions for their release.
Iraq's foreign minister confirmed on Tuesday that an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Baghdad had been freed. It said the Iraqi government was also trying to secure the release of five Iranians detained by US forces in northern Iraq in January.
Some analysts say Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who seized the British sailors, may have wanted to send a message that Iran would not sit by while its citizens were detained in Iraq.
The Fars News Agency, considered close to the Revolutionary Guards, released a new picture of the captives on Tuesday showing a group of six of them in tracksuits sitting on an Iranian carpet, some smiling and apparently chatting.
Iran's anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who beat Larijani in the 2005 presidential race, will talk about the detained sailors on Wednesday, according to Iranian television.
Western diplomats say -- and even some Iranian officials privately admit -- that Larijani's negotiating efforts on Iran's nuclear programme had in the past sometimes been damaged by anti-Western statements by Ahmadinejad.
Under the Islamic Republic's system of clerical rule, policy is ultimately decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But analysts say he is looking for a consensus, which allows rival factions to battle for influence. Khamenei has not yet made any public comment on the case.
- REUTERS
