Seizure of Britons reveals split in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran sent mixed signals Friday in the crisis over the capture of 15 British marines and sailors, reflecting divisions in the country's leadership and raising doubts about its intentions.

Iran ignored protests by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and released another videotaped confession of a detainee and a letter purportedly written by the female captive, Faye Turney, calling for British troops to leave Iraq.

At the same time, the representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the security forces, midranking cleric Mohammad Ali Rahmani, called for release of Turney "in order to show Iran's special respect for women to the world and the implementation of Iran's policy of détente."

Diplomatic efforts by British, Iranian, Japanese, Australian, Turkish and Iraqi officials failed to resolve the standoff, which began to echo similar crises in recent Iranian history, such as the hostage crisis that followed the 1979 storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the British author of "The Satanic Verses."

In both cases, the Iranian government, weakened by factional fights, sought to stifle internal dissent and inflame popular support by fomenting an international crisis.

The hostage-taking was the start of 28 years of friction between Iran and the U.S. The Rushdie fatwa damaged diplomatic ties between Britain and Iran for nearly a decade.

Iranian foreign ministry officials first announced this week they would release Turney as a gesture of goodwill, but later reneged because they disapproved of the tone of British protests.

The Revolutionary Guards, the group presumably holding the detainees, have broadcast videotapes of the detainees despite Britain's repeated demands that it treat the prisoners in accord with international standards.

In the video, Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers, seated next to Turney and another detainee, apologized for crossing into Iranian territorial waters.

"We illegally trespassed on Iran's territorial waters and were arrested by the Iranian border guards," said Summers. The video and letter released Friday drew swift condemnation from the British prime minister.

"I really don't know why the Iranian regime keeps doing this," Blair said.

"All it does is enhance people's disgust at the captured personnel being paraded and manipulated in this way. It doesn't fool anyone."

Foreign ministry officials, some loosely allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have demanded that Britain apologize before Iran will consider granting consular access to the detainees or releasing them.

Small ultra-conservative groups, especially those devoted to honoring soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war, have been rallying for an immediate trial for the detainees for violating Iran's territorial waters, or for using the captives to obtain the freedom of the handful of Iranian officials held by U.S. forces in Iraq.

Reformists and opposition figures, on the other hand, have begun to criticize the government's actions as counterproductive and destructive to Iran's image and long-term goals.

British officials insist the 15 service personnel, who were taken prisoner March 23, were on a routine inspection mission in the territorial waters of Iraq, where Americans and Britons assist the Baghdad government under United Nations mandate authorizing foreign troops.

They've demanded their immediate release, and on Thursday obtained a U.N. statement calling for an end to the crisis.

Iran alleges the 14 men and one woman illegally entered Iranian territorial waters. Both sides have released maps and Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates to bolster their cases.

Political analysts say the taking of the detainees may have been an attempt to forestall internal criticism of Iran's uncompromising policy on its uranium-enrichment program, which drew new sanctions from the United Nations Security Council on March 24.

Ahmadinejad and conservative elements within the security forces had apparently miscalculated the extent of international unanimity on the nuclear issue.