From rxpgnews.com
UN voices 'grave concern' over British detainees in Iran
By DPA,
Mar 30, 2007 - 10:37:42 AM
New York, March 30 - The UN Security Council has expressed 'grave concern' over Iran's detention of 15 British naval personnel and demanded a resolution of the crisis, but rejected a stronger British version that demanded their 'immediate release'.
After hours of closed-door negotiations here, the 15-nation Council also asked the Iranian government to allow consular access to the British soldiers held since last Friday, and supported calls by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for 'an early resolution' of the standoff.
Ban met with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Motaki in Riyadh Thursday on the sidelines of the Arab League summit and urged a quick resolution to the dispute, according to a spokesperson in New York.
'Members of the Security Council expressed grave concern at the capture by the Revolutionary Guard, and the continuing detention by the government of Iran, of 15 United Kingdom navel personnel, and appealed to the government of Iran to allow consular access, in terms of the relevant international law,' the Council said in a statement read by its president, South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo.
The Council's statement was completely different from a draft proposal submitted by Britain Thursday morning, which called for the 'immediate release' of the captives.
The council spent over four hours debating the British draft but ended up releasing its own, which Kumalo said was more factual and related to events in the Persian Gulf.
The British draft was much stronger and had proposed that 'members of the Security Council deplore the continuing detention by the Government of Iran of 15 UK naval personnel' and added that they were operating in Iraqi waters at the time of the capture.
Iran insists the two British patrol boats were trespassing in Iranian waters at the time they were seized - a claim Britain has strongly denied.
An Iranian diplomat told reporters earlier that the British request exceeded the standards of Council meetings because the detention is an issue between London and Tehran to settle.
'This is a misuse of the Security Council,' said the Iranian diplomat who asked to remain anonymous.
All rights reserved by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited ( www.rxpgnews.com )