PM warns Iran over Navy captives
Blair has now started issuing vague threats towards Iran regarding the 15 captured sailors, warning Iran that we will move into a "different phase" unless there is a speedy release of the captured British sailors.
"These people have to be released," the prime minister told GMTV.
Mr Blair GMTV: "What we are trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them.
"I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase."
He doesn't specify what this "different phase" consists of, although there was another enigmatic statement from his spokesperson.
The prime minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair's remarks about a "different phase" did not refer to any extreme diplomatic action, such as expelling Iranian diplomats from Britain or military action.
"We have been clearly stating that we are utterly certain that the personnel were in Iraqi waters.
"We so far have not made explicit why we know that, because we don't want to escalate this."
What the Hell does that mean? It's hard to believe that they are now sending public signals to each other in some sort of code, after all Margaret Beckett has already had the Iranian Ambassador into her office, so I presume she could have said anything she wanted to during that exchange.
So what the Hell are they threatening to reveal? Or is this an attempt to make the rest of us think that there is more to this than meets the eye.
Oh, and Blair also dismisses any attempt to make a link between the capture of the fifteen Brits and the American snatching of five Iranian diplomats:
Mr Blair said the situations were "completely distinct" as any Iranian forces inside Iraq were breaching a UN mandate.
"In the end, it is a question really for the Iranian government as to whether they want to abide by international law or not," he said.
Leaving aside the absurdity of this serial abuser of the UN Charter now demanding that others follow it's remit; he is simply flat wrong about the Iranians snatched by the US as they were snatched from inside the Iranian consulate in Erbil where, unless I am completely mistaken, they were supposed to enjoy diplomatic immunity.
Blair coming out with this sort of nonsense is nothing new, international law as it applies to his actions are always "completely distinct".
But what the Hell is this new phase he keeps hinting at?
Time will tell...
Click title for full article.
No comments:
Post a Comment