Iran releases eight British military servicemen
Reuters, Tehran
Eight British servicemen were freed yesterday after three nights in the hands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, ending a diplomatic wrangle that had threatened to inflame tensions over Britain's presence in Iraq.British diplomats took custody of the eight naval personnel and flew with them to Tehran from the Gulf area where they were detained on Monday after straying into Iranian waters. The servicemen were shown blindfolded on Iranian television shortly after their capture, but had also been treated by their captors later, as diplomacy progressed, to chopped meat stew. Diplomatic relations had already soured over British pressure on Iran's atomic program but British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted on Thursday he still backed a policy of engagement with Iran, despite the arrests. "I am in no doubt at all that our policy of engagements with the government of Iran ... is the best approach," Straw said in London, shortly after the eight were released. "We have worked hard on diplomatic relations with Iran ... Sometimes the relationships are complicated." Diplomats had been locked in negotiations deep into Wednesday night, deliberating over the return of the men's equipment -- an issue which remained unresolved on Thursday. "That's another matter and is subject to further discussions," Straw said. The eight were held in the sweltering province of Khuzestan in Iran's oil-rich southwest after they were seized on the Shatt al-Arab waterway along the Iran-Iraq border. Diplomats visited them on Wednesday and said they had been well looked after. Television showed them lounging on beds with bright quilts and the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Revolutionary Guards saying they had given their guests a traditional diced-meat stew. "At least now we can be pleased that they're happy and released. And I'm told that they are in very good spirits and well cared for," Straw said.
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