« A Great Weekend for PoliticalSports | Main | McCain Swings and Misses »

March 29, 2007

Iran Keeps Punching

I love foreign affairs. There is so much happening, with most way beyond one's comprehension, certainly mine. I watch and read everything I can about Iran and North Korea these days. The latest scrap with Iran and the 15 British hostages is no exception. I listened to a good analysis last night on NPR as I was driving home from work. The analyst, I forget his name, suggested that the Iranians are feeling a great deal of pressure now, with the U.N. sanctions and condemnation for their nuclear adventures. Even their pals the Russians and Chinese are against them. So what do they do? They remind everyone that they still have some punch left in their gloves by snatching those sailors and making up the technical details, like the fact that they were in Iranian waters. You say we aren't sure? The Iranians tried to prove their claim by providing specific coordinates of the capture. Unfortunately for them the coordinates they gave were for a position inside Iraqi territorial waters. The next day they "corrected" their claims. And now they say that the British were actually in Iranian waters 6 times. Their claims are clearly suspect. (CNN)

Wednesday, the British Ministry of Defense gave what it said was proof that the British ship carrying the sailors and marines never strayed into Iranian waters.

British Vice Adm. Charles Style said the global positioning system on the ship proves the vessel was "clearly" 3.1 kilometers (1.7 nautical miles) inside Iraqi waters.

Iran insists the ship was inside its territorial waters and, according to Style, provided a map with coordinates on Saturday in an attempt to prove the point.

Style said those coordinates actually "turned out to confirm they were in Iraqi waters" and Iraq has supported that position.

Upon pointing that out Sunday through diplomatic contacts, Style said Iran then "provided a second set of coordinates" on Monday that were "in Iranian waters over two nautical miles" from the position shown by the HMS Cornwall and confirmed by the merchant vessel the British personnel boarded. (CNN)

The "change of coordinates," Style said "is hard to legitimate."

One thing we can be sure of is that the abduction is part of a larger game. The Iranians are trying to reverse current momentum by going on the offensive here to counteract the recent International

Posted by Chip Spear at March 29, 2007 11:31 AM