Iran plans to charge five British yachtsmen as spies

Iran plans to charge five British yachtsmen as spies

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

December 1, 2009, 2:59 PM (GMT+02:00)

Five British yachtsmen seized by Iran

Five British yachtsmen seized by Iran

Tehran is thinking in terms of prosecuting the five British yachtsmen seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval commandos on their way from Bahrain to Dubai last month. Tuesday, Dec. 1, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief of staff said: "The judiciary will decide about the five… but naturally Iran will take hard and serious measures if we find out they had evil intentions."

DEBKAfile's Iranian and intelligence sources report that the Iranians plan to claim that instruments for tracking aircraft, missiles and electronic jamming devices were found aboard that the Kingdom of Bahrain racing yacht, detained near the island of Sirri. They will try and counter the British Foreign Office claim that the sailors were innocent civilians who strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters on their way to a racing meet.

The British foreign office waited a week before disclosing the incident on Monday, Nov. 30 - apparently after fruitless negotiations for the release of the five sailors, Luke Porter, David Bloomer, who is an English broadcaster for Bahrain radio, Oliver Smith, Oliver Young and Sam Ushr.

According to Tehran, even if the yacht strayed off course, the crew was experienced enough to reach the island of Abu Musa opposite Dubai and their craft should have been found between Abu Musa opposite Dubai and not between Abu Musa and Sirri where it was stopped.

The incident plays into Tehran's hands at a particularly low moment in UK-Iran relations, occurring as it did when the Islamic Republic was in the middle of a large-scale air defense exercise and heading for a major crisis with world powers. Tehran may now try and force one or more of the detainees to confessing they were spying on Iranian's systems for defending its nuclear sites.

DEBKAfile's military sources note that Tehran's is hypersensitive to any movements around the cluster of islands situated close to the Straits of Hormuz because Revolutionary Guards bases on Abu Musa,Sirri, Big Tunb and Little Tunb provide Iran with its first line of defenses against air and missile attack. The systems installed there are intended to intercept hostile aircraft and missiles before they penetrate mainland Iran or try to bomb targets in Iran from the outside, while still over the Persian Gulf.

This network of defense installations and their integration into the aid defense systems protecting Iran's nuclear facilities were the focus of its air defense exercise last month. The islands dotted around Iran's Persian Gulf coast also house large naval and shore-to-sea missile bases.

The Islamic regime can be expected to blow the British yachting case up into a major feature of the landscape of rising tension with the West. Tehran has a special reckoning with London, alleging the Brits took a hand in its violent post-election protests last June.

Three American backpackers who strayed across the Iraq-Iran Kurdish border in July are still detained and face charges of spying. Wednesday, Iranian "students" have been called out to demonstrate outside the British embassy in Tehran Wednesday in protest against "the Britons' illegal entry" into Iranian waters.

Baha'i delegation meets Prime Minister Brown - read more

PM underlines concern for Iran’s Bahá’ís at historic meeting with Bahá’í delegation

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The Prime Minister Gordon Brown has underlined the UK government’s concern over the seven Bahá’í leaders being detained in Iran.

Mr Brown’s remarks were made at a meeting which took place this afternoon at the Prime Minister’s office in the Houses of Parliament, attended by Lembit Öpik, MP for Montgomeryshire – who is Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Friends of the Bahá’ís group – and a delegation of three Bahá’ís, including two members of the national governing council of the Bahá’í Faith in the United Kingdom.

It was the first ever meeting between a UK Prime Minister and representatives of the Bahá’í community, which was established in Britain in 1898.

Baha'i News UK has the full story of the historic meeting yesterday between a delegation comprising Lembit Opik MP and three UK Baha'is.

A key member of the delegation was Mrs Bahar Tahzib.

Mrs Tahzib – originally from Iran, but now living in Sussex – shared with the Prime Minister her first hand experience of religious persecution. Her father Yusuf Subhani was executed in Iran for being a Bahá’í in June 1980. Her uncle, Mr Jamaloddin Khanjani, is one the seven detained Bahá’í leaders in Iran.

“My uncle is 75 years old and he has been kept in unsuitable conditions for more than a year,” Mrs Tahzib told the Prime Minister. “This is clearly a cause of great concern for the family and their wish is for a fair trial.”

“I was very touched by the Prime Minister’s genuine expressions of sympathy and concern,” said Mrs Tahzib after the meeting.

After the meeting Dr Kishan Manocha, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the UK and delegation leader, commented:

We expressed our gratitude to the Prime Minister for the government’s ongoing support of our persecuted co-religionists in Iran, and we particularly thanked Mr Brown for his personal support and understanding. We raised with him the need for the seven Bahá’í leaders to be released immediately – and that if Iran refuses to do this, a public trial must be held that respects internationally recognized trial standards.

via bahainews-uk.info

Baha'i delegation meets Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Delegation-1

L to R: Kishan Manocha, Lembit Opik MP, Bahar Tahzib, Barney Leith

I had the honour of being one of a four-person delegation who met with the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP, in his House of Commons office this afternoon. The meeting had been set up by Lembit Opik MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Friends of the Baha'is to ask the Prime Minister to ensure that the British Government continues to press the Iranian authorities to release the seven former members of the Yárán (the Baha'i leadership group) in Iran or, at the very least, to ensure that they receive a fair trial. 

In addition to Mr Opik, the delegation comprised Kishan Manocha, the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the UK (the UK Baha'i community's national governing council), Bahar Tahzib, an Iranian Baha'i resident in the UK, whose father was murdered by the Iranian regime many years ago and whose uncle, Mr Jamaloddin Khanjani, is one of the seven currently in Evin Prison and awaiting trial, and Barnabas.

During the four-minute meeting - yes, four minutes only - Mr Brown listened carefully, expressed his sympathy with the Iranian Baha'i on the delegation, and underlined the British government's concern about the situation.

First formal meeting

This was the first time that a serving UK Prime Minister had met with an official Baha'i delegation. Although the meeting was brief and to the point and did not allow much opportunity to consider at length the perilous situation facing the Baha'is in Iran, it has nevertheless opened a channel of direct communication with the Head of the United Kingdom Government.

Although the delegation numbered four, others in the Baha'i office and Mr Opik's office had worked hard behind the scenes to bring this excellent meeting to fruition.