Iran releases letter, video of captured Britons

By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran displayed three detained British naval personnel on television on Friday and released a letter from one saying she was being held because of "oppressive" British and U.S. behaviour in Iraq.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the footage of three of the 15 British captives heightened people's disgust at the treatment of the sailors and marines and risked isolating Tehran further -- but he urged calm and patience over the crisis.

"I am writing to you as a British service person who has been sent to Iraq, sacrificed due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments," said the third letter from sailor Faye Turney, released by Iran's embassy in London.

Iran seized the sailors and marines in the northern Gulf last Friday when they were on a U.N. mission searching for smugglers in Iraqi waters. Tehran says they strayed into Iranian waters but Britain insists they were well in Iraqi territory.

London has been pushing for international condemnation but failed to get the U.N. Security Council to pass a strongly worded draft statement. Instead, it expressed "grave concern."

In London, Iran's embassy said both governments were working together closely to find a mutually acceptable solution and that it could be settled bilaterally.

Russia, which had blocked moves for a stronger position, said it wanted the U.N. Secretariat to deal with the dispute.

EU foreign ministers voiced solidarity with Britain at a summit in Germany and deplored the seizure of the naval personnel but stopped short of suspending normal business with Tehran over the week-old row as London has done.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: "Tony Blair has made his comments and we strongly stand behind him."

Asked if she believed the crisis was closer to confrontation and armed conflict, she said: "There's no indication of that. No, I believe that everyone believes it can be solved diplomatically."

The Gulf Cooperation Council, a loose political and economic alliance of Iran's U.S.-allied Gulf Arab neighbours -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, also urged an end to the confrontation.

"Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Abdul-Rahman al-Attiya called for the release of the British sailors held in Iran, in compliance with international maritime law," the official Qatari News Agency reported.

"He expressed hope that the British and Iranian governments would apply self-restraint, flexibility and wisdom to solve this crisis," the agency said.

British forces have been deployed in southern Iraq since joining the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. Britain and the United States accuse Iran of allowing sophisticated weapons used to target their forces to be brought into Iraq.

The crisis, at a time of heightened Middle East tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions, has helped push oil prices to six-month highs over concerns an escalation might curb crucial oil exports from the region.