LONDON, March 26 (UPI) -- The British government is clueless about the whereabouts of the 15 U.K. soldiers arrested by Iran.
With international pressure on Tehran mounting, the Iranian government has not responded to the demands of the British ambassador in Tehran to release the group.
"We don't know where they are. We wish we did. We are asking whether they are being moved around inside Iran," Lord David Triesman, a senior foreign office official, told Sky News television.
The soldiers were arrested Friday on the Shatt al-Arab waterway that divides Iraq and Iran during what London says were routine anti-smuggling operations. Iran claims the soldiers illegally entered Iranian waters on purpose, allegations Triesman denied.
"We've been very clear throughout that the British sailors don't intentionally enter into Iranian waters," he said. "There's no reason for them to do so. We don't intend to do so; and I think people should accept that there's good faith in that assertion."
The German presidency of the European Union, a day before the official 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, also called for the "immediate release" of the soldiers.
The British-Iranian crisis comes after the U.N. Security Council drafted tighter sanctions against Iran because of suspicions that the Islamic Republic is pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program. Officials now fear that the soldiers may be used as a bargaining chip in the ongoing nuclear row.
