Fifteen British sailors and marines seized by Iran are currently being interrogated in Tehran and will have to answer to allegations they violated Iranian waters, an Iranian official said today. The 15 were seized on Friday in Arvandrud (Shatt al-Arab) waterway that divides Iraq-Iran.
Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in a statement issued in Baghdad that the Britons were detained while operating in Iraqi waters.
Iranian deputy foreign minister Mehdi Mostafavi denied reports that Iran wanted to exchange the British sailors with Iranian diplomats seized by US forces in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil in January.
With tensions rising in the region over both the group's capture and Iran's nuclear program, oil prices rose to their highest levels this year -- above 62 dollars.
