British sailors set to come home
April 4, 2007 by Sina
As much as I am relieved that the brave British soldiers will be home tomorrow I have some doubts about the outcome of the whole propaganda. Although Downing street approached Iranians as careful as possible in favor of its service men and women being held in Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again proved that he was the puppet master behind the show. First the revolutionary guards-who are the closest military allies of Mr president arrested the soldiers in Iraqi waters and paraded them on their very own TV station Al Alam, then Ahmadinejad himself refused to comment on the issue until suddenly after almost 2 weeks he announced their release on a postponed press conference, as an Easter gift to Britain. This can however, be dangerous as Ahmadinejad’s administration believes that they have won the media war and West’s soft response (in terms of using force) has assured them they can carry on with their nuclear weapon’s program no matter how the West reacts.
I strongly believe that in a similar situation the coalition forces should respond beyond the quiet diplomacy to let the Iranian government know such a behavior will not be tolerated.
This is what Tony Blair had to say to the Iranian people:
“We bear you no ill will. On the contrary, we respect Iran as an ancient civilisation, as a nation with a proud and dignified history.”
