Iran still holding British personnel

TEHRAN, March 24 (UPI) -- A diplomatic standoff continued Saturday between Iran and Britain over 15 British Navy personnel taken into custody by the Iraqi Navy.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had a "brisk and polite" meeting with Iran's ambassador to London Friday, demanding the immediate and safe return of the eight sailors and seven Marines, the BBC said. Meanwhile, Ibrahim Rahimpour, Iran's director general for Western European affairs, met British charge d'affaires Kate Smith in Tehran to deliver a "firm protest from Iran against the illegal entry of British sailors into Iranian territorial waters," the Iranian news agency Fars said.

The British personnel on two small boats dispatched from the HMS Cornwall were grabbed at gunpoint Friday after they had just completed a search of an Iraqi boat in what London said was Iraqi waters. There was no evidence of any fighting. The detained personnel would be asked to explain their actions, Fars said.

The Cornwall is the flagship of the Iraqi coalition force that patrols Iraqi territorial waters in the northern Gulf of Iran to prevent smuggling. The seizure was the first since 2004 when Iran held eight British servicemen for three days after they allegedly wandered into Iranian waters.