Iran Frees the British Troops: The Truth Within

“This is vindication for the British diplomats, who came under a lot of criticism,” says Ali Ansari, an Iran expert at London’s Chatham house think tank. “Diplomacy worked. People should reflect on this: There are diplomatic options when we deal with Iran. It’s a very salutary lesson.”

The US undersecretary of State during the 1979-81 hostage crises, Hodding Carter, told BBC radio: “One of the conclusions to be drawn was that when hostages are taken it’s a very good time for governments to shut up. You’re better off conducting diplomacy behind closed doors. You are far more likely to be able to affect something if you are not out there beating your chest and letting them beat their chest in return.”

The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said: “Throughout we have taken a measured approach - firm but calm, not negotiating but not confronting either. Britain bore no ill will toward the Iranian people. Any disagreements we have with your government we wish to resolve peacefully, and we hope that in the future we will be able to do so.”

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Said: “I hereby announce that the government of the Islamic Republic, with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial, has forgiven those 15 captives and granted their release to the British people as a gift. And this comes from the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.”

“On the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great prophet of Islam, and on the occasion of Easter and Passover, I would like to announce that the great nation of Iran, while it is entitled to put the British military personnel on trial, has pardoned these 15 sailors and gives their release to the people of Britain as a gift,” Ahmadinejad added.

Ahmadinejad said that, “From the beginning, I didn’t want to have any confrontation. We wanted our rights. The British government behaved badly, and it took longer.”

“We are grateful for your forgiveness,” said one of the British sailors to Ahmadinejad.

It seems that the recent event has tempted some countries to jump in and show off their negotiating skills! Iran's neigbour and closest alley in the region, Syria, has now claimed that it has played a role in putting an end to the UK-Iran stand off.

Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Moallem, said that, “Syria exercised a sort of quiet diplomacy to solve this problem and encourage dialogue between the two parties,”

Some critics believe that the Iranian government has done what it did in accordance with their west provoking habits and to cover up their own wrong doings in the Middle East region, especially in Iraq. In the other words, to them, the Iranian government has deliberately designed such an smart game to help it succeed at its political goals, among them annoying the U.S. government and its allies, and sending them some threatening signals at the same time.

Writes George Kennedy, in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian:

“Motivationally, this act by Iran could be retribution for the capturing of five Iranians believed to have been teaching insurgents in Iraq how to make more effective roadside bombs. This is purely speculation; however, even if Iran kidnapped the sailors in response, they have become hypocrites in the process. By meddling in the affairs of the U.S.-Iraq conflict, Iran has done exactly what Iranian president Ahmadinejad has criticized the U.S. for doing.”

“It has become more than obvious that Iran has been making a habit out of provoking the U.S. and coalition forces. Iran probably wants it to play out like this: Iran continues to build up its nuclear program and attempt to provoke the U.S. while saying they are merely doing what they believe is right. Iran will finally do something that the U.S. simply cannot just ignore and be forced to take action. Iran will respond by claiming atrocities on the part of the U.S., and once again we will be engaged with a country in the Middle East. Having just gotten out of Iraq, which will be in a bloody civil war at this point, we will be further labeled an imperial power and will be hard pressed to find allies - well, true allies and not yes men like Tony Blair-.”

But not everyone thinks that the recent hostage taking was pre-planned by brains behins the Iranian government. There are some experts who believe that the Iranian officials were not generally happy with how things were going on and therefore wanted to end the story peacefully and as soon as possible, so that they can avoid any further international pressures. That’s why they think the Iranian government was after an excuse all the time to let the British troops go, as it couldn’t have been deliberately looking for more trouble.

“We got the sense that the Iranians were sort of taking stock during the course of Monday and Tuesday,” a government official said, speaking on condition that his name not be used, according to British government policy.

“I think Iran was becoming increasingly aware that what they had done was a mistake and that the longer they held these people, the more the whole thing began to resemble the ugly hostage crisis of 1979. The last thing Iran needed was to become involved in yet another affair that furthered the impression that Iran was dangerous and could be dangerously irresponsible in its behavior,” Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department’s Middle East intelligence office, said in a telephone interview.

“Iranian leaders never imagined the consequences when they seized the sailors off Iranian or Iraqi waters. Televised confessions of the sailors provoked sympathy from the international public opinion, and such conditions were pushing Iran further into isolation,” said Mehrdad Serjooie, a political analyst at the Center for Strategic Research.

The co-author of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran, Meir Javedanfar, said in London that, “The resolution was a victory of sorts for the country’s pragmatists chief, among them Mr. Larijani. It just goes to show that the Iranian regime is prioritizing its needs, and that the priority is a nuclear program and trying to have an economic program and to avoid further sanctions. This has not been very helpful in international circles, where Iran is already isolated.”