There was no deal, says Iranian Foreign Minister

Iraq’s foreign minister welcomed the release today of 15 British sailors and marines but said the decision was not the result of a deal to release five Iranians detained by the US in Iraq.

“It’s good news for everybody,” Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. “We are pleased because this will reduce the current tension and hopefully it won’t happen again.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the troops were released as an Easter season gift to the British people.

It ended a 13-day stand-off which was sparked when the crew was seized as it searched for smugglers off the Iraqi coast.

Britain and Iraq have denied Iranian claims the crew had entered Iranian waters.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement came after Iran’s state media reported that an Iranian envoy would be allowed to meet five Iranians detained by US forces in northern Iraq.

Another Iranian diplomat, separately seized two months ago by uniformed gunmen in Iraq, was released and returned yesterday to Tehran.

Zebari, a Kurd, said his government has been forwarding Iranian requests for a meeting to the American military, but he could not confirm that one had been arranged.

Nor could Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirm the reported meeting.

Maj Gen William Caldwell, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said American authorities were still considering the request, although an international Red Cross team, including one Iranian, had visited the prisoners.

Those developments raised the possibility that a possible swap was in the works for the five Iranians, but Ahmadinejad denied any connection, saying the decision was “based on humanitarian considerations”.

Iran has denied it seized the Britons to force the release of Iranians held in Iraq, and Britain has steadfastly insisted it would not negotiate for the sailors’ freedom.

Zebari also insisted the cases were not linked, saying the decision on whether to release the Iranians was up to the U.S. military.

“Right now it rests with them,” he said in a telephone interview. “There was no deal and no arrangements, although we were involved in many stages of this.”

Zebari said the Iraqi government’s role was mainly to pass on messages and to convince the Iranian government that the detentions were damaging their national interests.

“Our role was to facilitate a resolution with the crisis,” he said. “In that sense we have been engaged and all along have been calling on the parties to keep Iraq away from settling their differences.”

The US military has said the five Iranians, who were arrested in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, were part of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard force that provides funds, weapons and training to Shiite militias in Iraq.

Iran had insisted that the five detained Iranians were engaged exclusively in consular work.

Another US military spokesman, Lt Col Christopher Garver, said “there has been no change to their status in detention at this time”.

The Iraqi government – which has found itself in a delicate balancing act as it tries to secure Baghdad with the help of American forces while maintaining ties with its neighbours, including US rivals Iran and Syria – also said the Iranians were part of a legitimate mission.

Zebari said the government has provided information about the mission and requested their release but the final decision rests with the US military.

“They have their own reason and their own investigations,” he said. “I think this issue has to be resolved one way or another ... and the sooner the better.”