Britain seeks U.N. support on its sailors in Iran

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Britain wants U.N. Security Council members to endorse a statement on Thursday that would "deplore" Iran's detention of 15 of its sailors, according to a draft text.

Britain's Defense Ministry maintains that global positioning data showed that its sailors and marines were 1.7 nautical miles within Iraqi waters when they were captured on Friday by Iranian gunboats near the waterway that separates Iran and Iraq. Tehran says the vessels were in Iranian territorial waters.

According to Britain's draft statement, obtained by Reuters on Wednesday, the 15-nation Security Council would "deplore the continuing detention by the Government of Iran of 15 United Kingdom naval personnel."

The vessels were "were operating in Iraqi waters as part of the Multinational Force-Iraq under a mandate from the Security Council ....and at the request of the government of Iraq," said the draft statement, which can be revised before adoption.

"Members of the Security Council support calls for the immediate release of these MNF personnel," the draft says.

Compared to a resolution, all Security Council members have to approve a statement, which means any one of the 15 nations has, in effect, a veto right.

Iran on Wednesday released a video of the sailors. One of the captured, Faye Turney, 26, the only woman crew member, was shown wearing a black head scarf and saying, "Obviously we trespassed into their waters."

After the broadcast, Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, told Reuters that Britain must accept the sailors were arrested in Iranian waters, while repeating an earlier announcement that Turney would be freed "as soon as possible."

Britain's U.N. ambassador, Emyr Jones Parry, told reporters on Wednesday morning that "colleagues generally expressed their concern about the situation, a wish to see it resolved." He said that "the quickest, easiest way to get it resolved is for them to be released immediately."