Why is Iran Pi55ing about...

[R1Geezer]

It's bl33ding obvious those guys on the yacht just got off course. Now we'll have months of f&rt ar5ing about with Iran acusing them of spying etc etc. Is it any wonder old Dinnerjacket and co are seen as a bunch of loose cannons? What's your prediction then oh wise ones? Obvious BGB opportunities here!

[craft1948]

Is this slightly better than being captured by pirates?

[Sqad]

Not the same I know but do you remember the Grimsby Fishing fleet in the Cold war........

Russians".."your fishing boats are spying on us."
UK...."Don't be daft, their fishing"
Russians..."Right sub on it's way to sink fishing boats.
UK....." Oi! that's our fishing boat that you have sunk."
Russians....."Tough...what are you going to do about it?"

20 years later UK admitted some fishing trawlers had state of the art listening devices.

I know....it 's not the same.

[R1Geezer]

The current status on Iran means that they can't fart with the west knowing, we hardly need a group lads on yacht to listen!

[rov1200]

It was daft Miliband putting his oar in. It just inflames the situation and makes it a politcal problem. He should have left it to the local yacht club to complain.

[scotman]

I think this is mainly for internal consumption in Iran.Armadinejad(sp) is on thin ice and needs to divert attention by inventing external enemies. It allows him to continue to run the country effectively under martial law. Lots of despots do this. Hitler with the Jews; "If the Jews had not existed it would have been necessary to invent them". Various other countries have their 'terrorists threats' and scapegoats too.

[123everton]

The Iranians grant us Brits with almost mythical powers, anything that they can do to embarrass us is lapped up by the masses.
This is just political posturing, a demonstration of how Iran will not be pushed around by Britain anymore.
Miliband had to say something as British subjects have been arrested by a foreign state for an alleged hostile border infraction.
It's hardly a Jameson raid though...

[Panic Button]

At least they will each end up with a nice grey suit.

[jno]

same as with those people captured by pirates (what happened to them?), with one difference: pirate waters aren't marked out, Iranian waters are. If people aren't good enough sailors to stay out of hostile waters, what do they expect?

And as Sqad says, there's a faint chance that they were indeed up to no good. Because if they were, then 'being blown off course' is the obvious cover story.

[jake-the-peg]

Oh dear - the perils of the crystal ball eh Geezer?

Think you may have to give yourself a blue badge for this one! ;c)

http://www.nytimes.co...leeast/03sailors.html

[R1Geezer]

All well and good if they'ver let them go! Looks like the badges go back into stock!

[webbo3]

what concerns me is that if they were that far off course what chance do they have of navigating they way to winning this race.

[Twenty20]

But surely these sailors should know better? It's fairly well known, I would have thought, that the Iranians are quite hot on people wandering into their territorial waters. I do wonder about the intelligence of people like this, and the yacht people who sail close to Somalia where they must know there are pirates.

Isn't it easier just to give certain areas a wide berth? It's not rocket science.

[jno]

actually, reading some of the reports, it sounds as if Iranian waters aren't as clearly delineated as I thought - there seem to be disputed areas. All the more reason for sailing with a lot of care, though.