LONDON — Britain on Wednesday froze all government contacts with Iran as the Islamic Republic came under mounting international and domestic pressure to release 15 British sailors and marines captured in the northern Persian Gulf.
British officials released detailed maps and coordinates they said proved that the detained navy and marine personnel were operating 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi territorial waters, and announced that they would have no ties with Iran except for talks to win the captives' release.
Iran said Wednesday the detainees were arrested 0.3 miles inside Iranian waters, underscoring what some experts say is the uncertain nature of the boundary that is at the heart of the dispute.
Iranian officials signaled at one point that the sole female sailor among the captives, who looked drawn and tense in images shown on Iranian television, may be released soon. But later in the day, Iran's foreign minister appeared to pull back from that position.
"We are now in a new phase of diplomatic activity," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told Parliament. "We will, therefore, be imposing a freeze on all other official bilateral business with Iran until this situation is resolved."
The freeze will include diplomatic contacts, trade missions and the issuance of visas to Iranian government officials, the Foreign Office said.
Outrage over footage
The action came as Iranian TV broadcast footage of the captives, including Leading Seaman Faye Turney, 26, who told an off-camera interviewer that she and her colleagues had trespassed into Iranian waters.
"I am so sorry we did, because I know we wouldn't be here now if we hadn't," Turney said in a handwritten letter to her family that was also shown on the broadcast. "I have written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize for us entering into their waters. Please don't worry about me, I am staying strong."
The British government immediately protested, calling it "completely unacceptable" for footage of the detained sailors and marines to be shown on television.
"Given the nature of Leading Seaman Faye Turney's statement, in particular the apparent confession that the personnel were 'arrested after they trespassed into Iranian waters,' we have grave concerns as to the circumstances under which she made this statement," the Foreign Office said in a statement after the broadcast.
