[Observer-UK] Editorial - There has been something deeply repellent about the sight of Britain's 15 seized sailors being paraded on Iranian television in a tacky propaganda circus. There is simply no case, as Tehran has tried to argue, that they entered Iranian territory. The stilted televised "confessions" that Tehran has produced are an embarrassing confection full of clumsy denunciations of UK foreign policy. Tellingly their delivery by the British captives is framed in the language of a Revolutionary Guards barracks and not the Royal Navy wardroom. If the affair so far has posed a painful dilemma for the UK as it has struggled to find the appropriate response, it is clear that the longer it drags on, the more offensive the continued captivity of the 15 Britons will be to world opinion. Iran's remaining allies should remind it that the only result of this crisis is that - day by day - the country comes closer to being an international pariah.
2007-04-02 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive