Talks to free yacht crew from Iran

Dec 1 2009

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said there is "no confrontation or argument" in negotiations with Iran to free five detained British sailors.

Their racing yacht, the Kingdom Of Bahrain, owned by Sail Bahrain, was stopped by Iranian naval vessels last Wednesday as it sailed from Bahrain to Dubai.

The crew members have been named as Bahrain-based radio presenter David Bloomer, Oliver Smith, 31, from Southampton, Oliver Young, 21, from Plymouth, Sam Usher, and Luke Porter, 21.

Mr Miliband, speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, said the incident was a consular matter and not linked to Royal Navy personnel.

"These are five civilians. They are yachtsmen. They were going about their sport," he said.

"It seems they may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters. We look forward to the Iranian government dealing with this promptly."

He said he was awaiting a statement from the Iranian government on the matter but stressed there was no dispute.

"There's certainly no confrontation or argument," he said. "As far as we are aware, these people are being well-treated, which is right and what we would expect from a country like Iran."

He said "perfectly good discussions" had taken place between officials in London and Tehran.

Sir Richard Dalton, the former UK Ambassador to Iran, told BBC News: "This is not going to be resolved in a matter of days and patience is required." He said it was possible the captured five could be paraded on television but added there was "much less reason" for the Iranians to make "political capital" out of the incident.