13/04/2013 00:00
TW
0

THE straightforward accounts of their capture and imprisonment given by Royal Marine Captain Chris Air and Lieutenant Felix Carman at yesterday's press conference will have won them and their team many friends and admirers. Obviously their statements had been carefully prepared and there was apparently no opportunity for the press to put questions. The first thing to say is that the pressure which their Iranian captors put on them, to admit in writing and on TV that they had been in Iranian waters when captured, has proved to be counter-productive in every way. Very few people thought the ‘confessions' were voluntary and the fact that it is now established that they were obtained by the application of psychological pressure robs them of what small value they may have had and puts the Iranians seriously at fault instead.

However, questions linger about the circumstances in which the 15 were captured. Although most people will think that Captain Air was right to decide not to start a fight with the better-armed and more numerous Iranians, many will also wonder why his two boats were left without any helicopter cover and more than a mile from their ‘mother' ship. Much more will be heard about this and other aspects of the British operation, including the allegation that five days before the incident Captain Air said in a TV interview that intelligence gathering from fishermen about Iranian activities was the purpose of his missions.