Margaret Beckett, foreign secretary, told parliament that she was „imposing a freeze all other bilateral business with Iran until this situation is resolved”. A Foreign Office spokesman suggested this would include bilateral contacts over Iran’s nuclear program. Beckett pointed out that even if the UK vessels had been inside Iranian waters, the most Iran could have done under international law was to request that they left immediately. The Iranian government had not made any demands on the UK but said it was continuing to investigate what it claims was a „very grave and technical breach of its borders”, she said. „Nothing I can call justification has been given (by Tehran).” Beckett said that satellite data unquestionably showed that the British personnel were in Iraqi territory when they were taken by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard last week.

Iran, which is thought to have transferred the detainees to Tehran, insists that the British boarding vessels carrying the naval personnel had crossed into Iranian territorial waters. The Iranian embassy in London on Wednesday said that the incident had taken place 0.5km within Iranian waters. But Britain’s deputy chief of defense staff, vice-admiral Charles Style, said on Wednesday morning that the navy’s GPS log showed the incident occurred 1.7 nautical miles within Iraqi territorial waters. He added that Iran had provided two separate sets of coordinates for the location of the incident, the first of which, provided on Saturday, lay within Iraqi territorial waters. „It is hard to understand the reason for this change of coordinates,” he said. „We unambiguously contest both the positions provided by the Iranians.”

 
In the House of Commons, prime minister Tony Blair added that the detention was „completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal” and said it was time to „ratchet up” diplomatic pressure on Iran over the incident. „We had hoped to see their immediate release,” Blair said. „This has not happened. It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure in order to make sure the Iranian government understands their total isolation on this issue.” William Hague, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Conservatives, offered his full support to Beckett, saying the evidence revealed by the UK authorities „shattered the credibility” of the Iranian claims. The UK was in „the strongest moral and legal position” for having initially attempted to resolve the stand-off using behind-the-scenes diplomacy, he said.

On Tuesday night Beckett cut short a visit to Turkey after discussing the plight of the service personnel in talks with Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. On Wednesday, CNN Turk television quoted Erdogan as saying Turkish diplomats may be allowed to see the British sailors after he had discussed the situation with Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Saudi Arabia, where they are attending a meeting of the Arab League. CNN Turk also quoted Mottaki as saying the servicewoman among those detained would be freed „today or tomorrow”. The detention of the British sailors has added to the growing tension between Iran and the west and contributed to a strong spike in oil prices on Wednesday.

In mid-day trading in London, Brent crude was $1.48 higher to $66.08 a barrel, while Nymex West Texas Intermediate was up $1.61 to $64.54 a barrel. US crude had risen more than $5 in after-hours trade on Tuesday on rumours of hostilities in the northern Persian Gulf. The initial spike – as high as $68.09 for Nymex crude – was caused by rumors, which were swiftly denied by the US, that Iran had fired a missile at a US warship in the Persian Gulf. (FT.com)