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recent Defections of high ranking Iranians

US rejects Iran captives exchange
US officials have ruled out a deal to exchange 15 Royal Navy personnel captured in the Gulf for five Iranians seized by American forces in Iraq. State department spokesman Sean McCormack rejected suggestions that a swap could be made.


The five, believed to be members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, were seized in January in the Iraqi city of Irbil. Britain denies Iran's claims that the UK crew was in its waters when seized on 23 March. The five Iranians were captured in a raid along with equipment which the Americans say shows clear Iranian links to networks supplying Iraqi insurgents with technology and weapons.

US officials have condemned Iran's actions and publicly supported the UK. Mr McCormack said: "The international community is not going to stand for the Iranian government trying to use this issue to distract the rest of the world from the situation in which Iran finds itself vis-a-vis its nuclear programme."

Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to Russia has said the UK captives could face trial for violating international law. "It is possible that the British soldiers who entered into Iranian waters will go on trial for taking this illegal action," Gholamreza Ansari told Russian television channel Vesti-24, according to Iran's IRNA news agency.

Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned Iran for "parading" the UK crew on television in a way which would only "enhance people's sense of disgust".

A third letter, allegedly from LS Turney, was released on Friday in which she said she had been "sacrificed" to UK and US government policy.


UK VERSION OF EVENTS
1 Crew boards merchant ship 1.7NM inside Iraqi waters
2 HMS Cornwall was south-east of this, and inside Iraqi waters
3 Iran tells UK that merchant ship was at a different point, still within Iraqi waters
4 After UK points this out, Iran provides alternative position, now within Iranian waters

The BBC has been able to confirm the names of six of the 15 captured sailors and marines. Along with LS Turney and Nathan Summers, who is from Cornwall, they are Paul Barton from Southport, Danny Masterton from Ayrshire, Joe Tindall from south London and Adam Sperry from Leicester.

European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Bremen, Germany, called for "the immediate and unconditional release" of the sailors and expressed "unconditional support" for Britain's position. UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the latest footage as "quite appalling" and "blatant propaganda". She also disclosed there was nothing in a formal letter from the Iranians to the UK that suggested they were looking for a solution to "this difficult situation".
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IRANIAN VERSION OF EVENTS
1 Royal Navy crew stray 0.5km inside Iranian waters
2 Iran gives set of co-ordinates to back up their claims
3 According to seized GPS equipment, the Royal Navy crew had previously entered Iranian waters at several other points
4 Iran informs Britain of the position where the crew were seized, inside Iranian waters

UK VERSION OF EVENTS
1 Crew boards merchant ship 1.7NM inside Iraqi waters
2 HMS Cornwall was south-east of this, and inside Iraqi waters
3 Iran tells UK that merchant ship was at a different point, still within Iraqi waters
4 After UK points this out, Iran provides alternative position, now within Iranian waters
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BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood said last year US President Bush gave a secret order that Iranian agents believed working in Iraq should be captured or killed because of the coalition's belief that Iran was "fermenting trouble in Iraq".

He said it meant there was a "compelling theory" that the UK sailors were captured as a result of an order "from the highest levels of Iranian government" which would make it a "very different game" for the Foreign Office to sort out.

Earlier, the UN Security Council called on Tehran to allow the UK access to the personnel and urges an "early resolution", including release of the crew, but stopped short of "deploring" Iran's action, as requested by the UK.

They were kidnapped, seized .. whatever you want to call it ... but defection without their families?

If you guys buy that, the middle east is going to buy the trespassing story that Iran is pumping out of their Arab Language propaganda TV station.

Nah, someone else already pointed out the obvious: tit for tat, our hostages for theirs.

the Iranian government is so shrewd lol....they are proving to be even more shrewd that the US and the UK

Actually, it is spelled "Screwed" with a "c".. and "ed", being that they are Surrounded on all sides by the Coalition Forces.. No Place to Run from Ole "Texas Bushy Boy"..

FYI: Former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Reza Asgari has defected to Turkey . ... with his family... it is speculated that he may be talking ... (wall street journal, march 30, A15.)

The family of Ali Reza Asgari, the Iranian general and former deputy defense minister who disappeared from Turkey last month, snubbed recent newspaper reports claiming he defected to the West and insisted instead that he was kidnapped by foreign agents.

His wife Ziba Asgari, 46, contended Western reports that Asgari was a spy and smuggled his family out of Iran prior to his escape. “We are here. Those are mere rumors being spread by the enemies,” she said.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3375593,00.html

U.S. caught off guard by Saudi king's criticism
But some experts say remarks on Iraq are gambit to check Iran

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/30/MNGOOOUM6U1.DTL

Being a natural cyninc I see this as good cop/bad cop. Russia claims the US will attack Iran soon, Iran knows this, but it also knows the US is reticent to attack without some sort of "coalition of the willing" (sic) and being nice to the UK is really in their best interest.

President Ahmadinejad announced the release of the 15 British naval personnel like a card player flinging down his hand to scoop the pool. Iran had good cards and played them well. It made its point about defending its borders, dominated international television with pictures of its prisoners and their "confessions" and, when it perhaps judged that it had got as much as it could expect to out of the confrontation, ended it with a flourish.

Iran will project this as a victory (the medals given publicly to the officers who led the operation was an immediate example) against a country still viewed with suspicion in Iran because of its past interventions. It also put out an indirect warning that any attack on its nuclear plants would be met with vigour.

At the same time, the British government can argue that it managed to put enough pressure on Iran to force it to put an end to the confrontation without Britain having to make any formal statement, even of regret, at the incident.

Nor was there any linkage to anything else, notably five Iranian officials held in Iraq.

Britain gave Iran an initial period of quiet in which to release the prisoners and when that did not work, went to the UN and the European Union while rallying support in the region. Whether that counted is not known. But certainly Iran complained about it, so it was noticed. Even the Pope joined in the pleas, with references to the sailors being home for Easter, and that might have been designed to appeal to President Ahaminejad's religious feelings.

Endgame
The decisive moment came with the intervention of Ali Larijani, a senior figure on Iran's National Security Council and the lead negotiator on the nuclear issue, into what had been until then an inconclusive, drawn-out, formal diplomatic exchange through embassies. He contacted Channel 4 News in London, whose staff met him during a visit to Iran a few months ago. He made it clear in an interview on Monday that Iran wanted a diplomatic solution.

This went against the mood in Tehran the day before, when hardliners organised a demonstration outside the British embassy. It will probably be back to confrontation when the next Security Council deadline for Iranian compliance comes on 23 May.

Mr Larijani's intervention indicated that pragmatists had prevailed. This was matched on the British side by a lowering of the temperature, which proved important as it allowed Iran to say that the British were being less arrogant. When more photos of the prisoners appeared, showing them playing chess and sitting on the floor, chatting and smiling, the UK Foreign Office made no complaint, as it had after earlier pictures.

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow told British officials about the origin of the Larijani interview at a briefing for correspondents by the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Tuesday. This appeared to galvanise British diplomats into contacting Mr Larijani themselves. That evening, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Tony Blair's foreign affairs private secretary, spoke to Mr Larijani by phone.

President Ahmadinejad's news conference had been postponed from the previous day so presumably a collective decision was taken during the delay. The president told the BBC's Frances Harrison that he had not wanted a confrontation and suggested that the release had been held up by the British attitude. In any event, he announced the release with some enthusiasm.

Lessons
One lesson that the British and other Western governments will draw is that Iran cannot be given opportunities like this without a propaganda price being paid. It appeared to observers during the crisis that the Royal Navy adopted the attitude that it was right and that was all there was to it. The navy's confidence was reflected in the fact that the helicopter that was monitoring the ship search preceding the seizure went back to HMS Cornwall without remaining overhead. Yet this, by British calculation, was within three minutes of the arrival of more powerful Iran boats. It is unlikely that there will be such confidence again.

And the incident was set against a background of hostility towards Iran by the British and American forces in Iraq. They have accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, whose naval unit took the British party, of helping Shia militias in their attacks on foreign troops. This incident is a reminder that all forces operate in a political context.

Nuclear issue
The Iranian decision in this case is unlikely to be reflected in the much larger issue of its argument with the Security Council over its enrichment of uranium.

It was noticeable that President Ahmadinejad spent much of his statement to the news conference denouncing the Security Council for being the instrument of the United States. He accused the West of trying to deny "scientific knowledge" to Iran, even though it is simply the enrichment process that is in question. His attitude indicates that it will probably be back to confrontation when the next Security Council deadline for Iranian compliance comes on 23 May.

The 15 sailors met Mr Ahmadinejad dressed in smart suits

I think the Iranian President knew his country was fixing to be stormed by US Special Forces and British Commandos.

Ahhh, no

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow told British officials about the origin of the Larijani interview at a briefing for correspondents by the Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Tuesday. This appeared to galvanise British diplomats into contacting Mr Larijani themselves. That evening, Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Tony Blair's foreign affairs private secretary, spoke to Mr Larijani by phone.