Reaction to Iran Navy crisis rapped

The eight Royal Navy sailors and seven Marines were taken prisoner on March 23 while conducting searches of ships in Iraqi waters, but it was not until seven days later that an approach was made to Dr Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the report by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee revealed.

The committee said it was "odd" that the UK waited so long to ask to speak to the man whom experts suggested was "very much in charge" of the incident in Tehran, and said that an approach "could and should have been made much earlier".

The report was also strongly critical of the decision to allow the released personnel to sell their stories to the media, and urged the Foreign Office (FCO) to make public exactly who in the Navy was responsible.

The decision was "a disturbing failure of judgment" and it was "wholly unsatisfactory" that a review of the Government's media handling of the incident failed to identify the individual who took it, said the cross-party committee.

Today's report was generally approving of the Foreign Office's diplomacy following the seizure of the troops, finding that "although there may have been some tactical mistakes, it is difficult to fault the FCO's overall approach".

The committee rejected the argument expressed by commentators, including former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, that Britain had been made to look "weak". There was no evidence that the UK struck any sort of deal to secure the release of its citizens, it found.

And the MPs said Iran deserved "strong censure for its illegal and provocative seizure of a group of lightly-armed British personnel who posed no threat to its interests or security".

However, the committee noted that the Government's attempt to put pressure on Tehran through the UN was "much less successful than it had hoped", with ministers forced to accept a statement that was significantly watered down from what they had sought.

And the report stated: "We conclude that although the Government was making every effort to resolve the situation quietly through bilateral diplomacy in the first few days of the crisis, its application to speak to Dr Ali Larijani could and should have been made much earlier than March 30."