Update on the Iran hostage crisis

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From The Guardian:

The Iranian hostage crisis took a sinister turn last night when Tehran withdrew an earlier offer to release one of the 15 captive sailors and marines and issued a second, strangely-worded letter in her name calling for Britain to withdraw from Iraq.

The letter, signed by Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman in the naval crew seized last Friday, was addressed to "representatives of the House of Commons". Although the letter was handwritten, it was stilted and lacked the personal tone of the first letter, sent to her family the day before. The second letter appeared to have been dictated to her.

Lovely game the Iranians are playing. Jon Stewart and John Oliver got it right tonight on The Daily Show: We've been doing our best to keep bomb-happy Bush from going to war with Iran, but the U.S. and the U.K., Bush and Blair, will fuck Iran over this. What the hell are they thinking holding these 15 sailors and marines hostage and forcing them to speak out against the war in Iraq (and talking about putting them on trial)?

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Via Sky News, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett: "This blatant attempt to use Leading Seaman Turney for propaganda purposes is outrageous and cruel."

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Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council has "expressed 'grave concern,'" according to the AP.

And Blair said this in a TV interview: "The important thing for us is to get them back safe and sound, but we can't enter into some basis of bargaining. What you have to do when you are engaged with people like the Iranian regime, you have to keep explaining to them, very patiently, what it is necessary to do and at the same time make them fully aware there are further measures that will be taken if they're not prepared to be reasonable. What you can't do is end up negotiating over hostages; end up saying there's some quid pro quo or tit for tat; that's not acceptable."

Going to the U.N. may not be enough. Blair had wanted the U.N. to "deplore" the capture of the sailors and marines, not just express "grave concern" over it. That sort of wording (and wrangling over wording) matters in such high-falutin' diplomatic circles, obviously, but one suspects that other "measures" may be in the works.