April 04, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1428

LONDON, April 3: Britain said on Tuesday the next 48 hours would be critical in the diplomatic crisis with Iran over Tehran’s seizure of 15 British sailors and marines in the Gulf, but played down expectations of a rapid solution.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett stressed the importance of diplomacy rather than military intervention.

“I would urge you to be cautious in assuming that we are likely to see a very swift resolution to this issue,” she told reporters. “We are not seeking confrontation. We are seeking to pursue this through diplomatic channels.”

The crisis between the two countries began when Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized the sailors on March 23 in the northern Gulf, where the British navy has been searching shipping in an effort to prevent smuggling.

Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said on Monday he believed bilateral diplomacy could resolve the crisis quickly. Britain responded by saying it would like early talks to end the row.

“This is a very critical time and the most important thing is that we get our people back safe and sound ...”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters.

“The next 48 hours will be fairly critical,” he told a radio station in Scotland.

Oil prices tumbled nearly two dollars on hopes of a diplomatic end to the crisis, after an apparent lack of progress had stoked fears that supplies from the Gulf could be affected.

US President George Bush said the tension over the seizure of the British sailors by Iran, the world's fourth-biggest oil exporter, had `spooked’ crude oil prices.

The dispute centres on where the sailors were when they were seized. Britain insists they were in Iraqi waters on a routine UN mission, but Tehran says they were in its waters.

“We can definitely see a diplomatic solution on the horizon,” said Ali Ansari, director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University in Scotland.

“It seems to me that what is in the offing is a delegation of some sort will go to Tehran, to ... reassure the Iranians that there will be a mechanism in place to ensure that this will not happen again.”

Experts on international borders say the boundary between Iranian and Iraqi waters in the Shatt al-Arab waterway is poorly defined, which may give Britain and Iran room to `agree to disagree’.

DIPLOMAT FREED: British moves to get the international community to condemn Iran angered Tehran, and Britain has criticised the parading of its military personnel on Iranian television, saying broadcasts showing them admitting their guilt had been forced on them.

Iran said on Tuesday the row could be resolved soon if London continued its `changed behaviour’ and accepted that its sailors and marines had entered Iranian waters illegally.

Mr Larijani left the door open for discussion about whether the sailors had strayed into Iranian waters by saying a `delegation’ should be sent to clarify the issue.

Mr Bush said Iran's seizure of the sailors was `indefensible’ and there should be no conditions for their release.

Iraq's foreign minister confirmed that an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Baghdad had been freed. It said the Iraqi government was also trying to secure the release of five Iranians detained by US forces in northern Iraq in January.

Some analysts say Iran's Revolutionary Guards, who seized the British sailors, may have wanted to send a message that Iran would not sit by while its citizens were detained in Iraq.

The Fars News Agency, considered close to the Revolutionary Guards, released a new picture of the captives showing a group of six of them in tracksuits sitting on an Iranian carpet, some smiling and apparently chatting.

Western diplomats say -- and even some Iranian officials privately admit -- that Mr Larijani's negotiating efforts on Iran’s nuclear programme had in the past sometimes been damaged by anti-western statements by Mr Ahmadinejad.

Under Iran’s system of clerical rule, policy is ultimately decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But analysts say he is looking for a consensus, which allows rival factions to battle for influence. Ayatollah Khamenei has not yet made any public comment on the case.—Reuters