Colonel Setareh, commander of the Ervand Sea Border Patrol Station:
On Friday 3 Farvardin 1386 [23 March 2007] two English vessels
trespassed on the Islamic Republic of Iran's maritime territory and
ultimately these individuals were stopped and arrested at this point
[shown with pointer on map].

After a review of the information on the GPS devices taken from them it became clear that they had trespassed onto the Islamic Republic of Iran's terrotory at these points you see on the map. They were finally stopped and arrested at this point [gestures with pointer].

Announcer: In a telephone conversation with the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkey's prime minister said England's change in its relationship with Iran was a mistake and asked that Turkey's ambassador to Iran be allowed to see the arrested English soldiers.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the illegal entry onto Iranian territory by the English soldiers and said: In the last few years English soldiers have repeatedly disregarded laws and international treaties and entered Iranian territory. The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran added that the English government, despite the official commitment not to repeat the illegal entry into Iran's territory, instead of apologizing has made a resolution difficult by creating a false climate of opinion and propaganda commotion.

The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council questioned England's propaganda commotion about the arrest of its soldiers in Iran's territorial waters and said: The most logical way to resolve this problem is for Britain to present its technical and legal reasoning.

Interviewer to Ali Larijani: Why are the English insisting on portraying this issue in reverse?

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council: The reason is first that there was a precedent for these incursions, which was repeated again and again. Once when they were stopped the members of the group even admitted they were in Iran's coastal waters. The second embassy official even signed a statement acknowledging that they were in our territorial waters and promised not to repeat it. Well, they do not want to admit that they have done this.

The second point is that they are now in this region on the pretext of inspecting ships bound for Iraq. They effectively want to establish the convention of trespassing in the territorial waters of other nations. They must know the price is not trivial! Iran is an important nation in the region. We want reasonable bilateral relations with all nations and we comply fully with international law. We are a nation that accepts responsibility.

However we will not allow anyone to trespass on the nation's sovereignty. If someone does this they must state the reason! The most logical thing is for Britain to use legal and technical reasoning and acknowledge where it has trespassed. However since they did not want to do this they began making things difficult.

This will produce no result! The Islamic republic is not a nation that will disregard its rights because of commotion or unconventional behavior.

Announcer: The spokesman for the Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the interference of European officials in the arrest of English soldiers for trespassing on Iranian waters and said it was unacceptable. Mohammad Ali Hosseini mentioned the remarks by German Prime Minister Merkel, Solana, and NATO Secretary-General Jaap De Hoop Scheffer in taking sides on the trespass by English soldiers onto Iranian territory. He said: This is a bilaterial issue between Iran and England and interference with uninvolved parties will be of no help in resolving the matter.

Meanwhile on Thursday afternoon Geoffrey Adams, England's ambassador to Tehran, was summoned to our nation's Foreign Ministry for the fifth time because of the illegal entry of this nation's soldiers onto the waters of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

An informed official at Iran's Foreign Ministry said: At this summons it was emphasized again to the English ambassador that media and political controversy not only cannot help resolve this issue, indeed they make it more difficult.

Likewise on Thursday Faye Turney, the English sailor who was arrested last Friday along with 14 other soldiers from this nation for trespassing on Iran's territorial waters, in a letter to the representatives of the House of Commons requested an investigation of Tony Blair's Labor government.

In this letter, which was published in London, Faye Turney expressed satisfaction with the behavior of the Iranians towards the arrested group. She wrote: After the English government promised not to repeat incicidents such as this, I ask the representatives of the House of Commons why they allowed this to be repeated.

In another letter to her parents that was published yesterday, she apologized in writing to the people of Iran for illegally entering Iranian territory.

On Thursday morning a number of students from universities in Tehran held a protest gathering in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and demanded that the English soldiers be tried for illegally entering Iran's waters.

In view of the statement from the English Ministry of Foreign Affairs calling for the suspension of commercial and economic ties between the two nations, these students called for a complete severing of relations between Tehran and London because of the hostile positions England has taken against Iran.

Crossposted to Satellite News (Iran)