What is the Iranian government trying to achieve with the current situation with the British sailors?

Question

It's pretty obvious from how the rest of the world is reacting that the British sailors were illegally taken, and it's also obvious that Iran is not going to get the apology from Britain that they have been demanding (since it's almost certain that the sailor were outside Iranian waters when they were taken). So what is their logic? What is the Iranian government trying to achieve by escalating the already tense situation with the Western nations? I don't see any way that they can win from this. If they release the servicemen, they look weak to their own people. If they convict them of a nonexistent crime in a show trial or kill them, they're going to have to deal with a very angry United Kingdom and her allies. So how does Iran benefit?

(I would appreciate well thought out answers to this question, not answers like "Iran is evil" or "Britain is evil" or things of that nature. I really want intelligent opinions as to what Iran could possibly gain from this.)

Answer 1

Iran has nothing to gain by their stance unless they believe they are right about the boat's position.



I'm not sure that anyone can say it's "certain" that they were outside Iranian waters, That would put them in Iraqi waters, where the captors almost certainly would have been fired upon by any American forces or British forces in the area. Naturally Britain would say they weren't, to save face. If you assume that the Iranians believe they were in their waters, then the sanctity of its borders hangs in the balance. If they cave, and just release the sailors, they can expect a little more encroachment next time, and the time after that, and so on, until they finally respond with force, and then they will be at war.

Israel sent two of its soldiers into Lebanon last year, knowing that they probably would be captured, and used that as an excuse to carpet bomb Beirut.

British and U.S. forces were running bombing raids through the Iraqi no-fly zone 6 months before 9/11, and then cried"Look, look, he's shooting at us!"

So there is a recent history of provocative actions by the U.S. and its allies in that region.

It's not like they blew the British boat out of the water, so it should be handled as a border dispute: send envoys to negotiate in private so no one loses face; and get those sailors home safely, no matter what you intend to do after that.

I know we don't have any diplomats, but maybe Britain still has 1 or 2....

Answer 2

The british sailors are trespassing on Iranian seashores and not using a valid Visa on their passport for this reason they're seen prisoners of Iran. Iran can do some thing they choose with the sailors. commerce them for money, products, facilities, or merely enable them rot in penal complicated.

Answer 3

The way I see it, Mahmoud Abedenijad is a mad man, and wants to take similar actions agianst minorities as so hitler did. Iran does not no the potentially dangerous. Howevery despite thier attempt to cry out thier power to nations more powerful than them, it can give Iran alot of publicity about the hostage soldiers and spend time working on thier nuclear program. With thier increas in nuclear productivity people wont worry as much about, they can begin heading down victory straigtaway and attempt to wipe israel off the map. Howevery, this won't happen as Iran will do something totally uncalled for and have our powerful friends wage war on them whilts we heal, which would be china, israel, england if thier up to it, South Korea who is battle ready after contributing only a small fraction of thier troops in Iraq, and maybe other countries from the EU. Saudi arabia will not contribute most likely to defend thier precious oil.

Answer 4

I think someone made a bad decision when the soldiers were taken, and now it's to the point where they can't back down without losing face.

It's truly unfortunate for everyone else who will be dragged into this mess, because some Iranian muckety-muck won't admit he screwed up.

Answer 5

What is the American government trying to achieve with the current situation with the British sailors and Iranian diplomatic hostages ?

Answer 6

They are using them as shields against a possible air strike over the nuke program. Second they are using them as propaganda to build support among the fundamentalists around the world. Displays of power are very important to them.