Cash for sailors - just an interlude in a wider drama?
Apr 11, 2007 - 9:05:13 AM
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'As the West desperately attempts to extricate itself from its policies in the region, constructive engagement with Iran makes the only sense,' wrote Jenkins Tuesday.
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By Anna Tomforde,
[RxPG] London, April 11 - Iran's capture of 15 British naval personnel and the subsequent 'cash for sailors' row in Britain could come to be seen as just an interlude in the wider drama of a looming confrontation between Iran and the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, commentators believe.
It was little surprising that 'Iran's calculated release' of the sailors and Royal Marines after 13 days of captivity was followed by the announcement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Tehran's alleged ability to produce enriched uranium on an 'industrial scale,' London's Independent newspaper said Tuesday.
The announcement, made in a blaze of publicity, was just 'another step towards a showdown' with America and its Western allies, the paper believes.
While the British government, like the US, has expressed concern at Iran's expansion of its nuclear programme, officials have said privately that they believe Ahmadinejad's enrichment claim was 'directed primarily at domestic critics of his decision to release the British captives'.
'He - can't allow himself to appear as if he is going soft,' said a foreign office official privately. 'We are a little bit sceptical as to whether they have got as far as he is claiming,' he added.
Iran has until the end of the month to comply with the latest UN demand for a suspension of enrichment activities.
British commentators are unanimous that Ahmadinejad, who caught the government in London by surprise with his stage-managed announcement of the release of the 15 sailors last week, scored another 'propaganda victory' over the embarrassing episode of allowing - and then banning - the captives to tell their stories.
The so-called 'cash for sailors' row had made a laughing stock of the British armed forces who like to pride themselves on their professionalism, a Labour critic said.
The sailors and Marines had been 'put up for auction' with the initial decision to allow them to sell their stories to the media for exorbitant sums, said Conservative spokesman Liam Fox. 'This will not have gone unnoticed overseas,' he added.
The obvious mishandling of the sailors' issue, compounded by the relief over their unexpected release and a lack of government alertness due to the Easter holiday, has further undermined relations with Iran, commentators said.
While last week Prime Minister Tony Blair said that 'new and interesting' channels of communication had been opened with Iran during the crisis over the captives, such optimism had now evaporated.
Apart from the damage that had been done to the image of Britain's armed forces, dialogue with Iran had doubtlessly become harder by 'pumping up the propaganda war with the sale of captives' stories,' leading columnist Simon Jenkins wrote in the Guardian.
'As the West desperately attempts to extricate itself from its policies in the region, constructive engagement with Iran makes the only sense,' wrote Jenkins Tuesday.
Responding to his article, one reader told the newspapers website: 'Allowing sensationalist stories from former hostages into the public domain was a huge propaganda own goal. We need to build bridges with Iran, which the diplomats did by getting the hostages released. The MoD blew it - big time.'
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