Robert Tait explains why most Iranians see Britain as an old colonial power that's still meddling in their affairs.

UPDATE: Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, explains here that: (1) the Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist; and (2) accepting the British coordinates for the position of both HMS Cornwall and the incident, both were closer to Iranian land than Iraqi land.

Murray concludes,"None of which changes the fact that the Iranians, having made their point, should have handed back the captives immediately. I pray they do so before this thing spirals out of control. But by producing a fake map of the Iran/Iraq boundary, notably unfavourable to Iran, we can only harden the Iranian position."

Mark Brady - 4/4/2007

Read Jonathan Freedland on how the standoff with Iran over fifteen British captured sailors has revealed much about both countries - and the wider conflict.

Mark Brady - 4/2/2007

Gary Leupp suggests here that "this border issue in any case is the business of Iraqis and Iranians---rather than British and American imperialists popping up in the region at no one's invitation, on false pretexts, slaughtering people and expecting as they do so that the conquered locals will say 'Thanks, boss!'" The entire article entitled "A Bogus Hostage Crisis" is worth reading.

Sudha Shenoy - 4/1/2007

The comments following on Craig Murray's blog _must_ be read, esp. the points made by Martin Pratt, Director of rfesearch at the International Boundaries Research Unit at Durham University.

Craig Murray himself says (near the end): "But of course these are disputed waters. Just as we are wrong unequivocally to say that they are Iraqi waters, Iran cannot say unequivocally they are Iranian waters either." Hear, hear!

Sudha Shenoy - 3/30/2007

Iranian officials blame the British in Iraq for Arab separatist bombs. Anti-clerical Iranis blame the British for this same regime -- instituted by Khomeini -- whose followers overthrew the Shah -- who was a British puppet...

So why did the British simultaneously set up the Shah & then get Khomeini & his followers to bring the Shah down? And why are the British bombing the very regime they set up? And why is 'their' regime blaming their British masters for bombing their own puppets...?

Thank goodness for nationalism..