Daily Archives: 4/5/2007
British Sailors Freed
| 4/5/2007 | Posted by Patti under Middle East |
The crisis involving the detention of 15 British service people has ended in a rather surprising move on the part of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Seemingly out of the blue, he announced that the service people would be released and ‘forgiven’ as an Easter gift to the people of Britain. His announcement followed the presentation of a medal to the coast guard commander who detained the Britons.
The fifteen are back home in Britain preparing to be reunited with their families. What is left is speculation over what prompted this surprising but happy ending to this crisis. By making the move he did Ahmadinejad created a situation that saved a lot of face all the way around, most importantly that neither side had to admit wrong. Sometimes that is not a bad thing.
It’s obvious that some diplomatic work was going on behind the scenes to have opened the curtain enough for the release. Some American officials had termed the British response to the crisis as ‘pathetic’, those pugnacious mouthpieces need to take a hard look at what quiet diplomacy can gain. This incident has ended in a manner that can leave the door open to other possibilities instead of posturing on both sides.
British performer, Terry Jones, has written a rather dark humour piece in the Guardian Unlimited contrasting the Iranian and American detention methods. There is often truth in humour.
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