March 28, 2007
Iran Update: Turney Interview Released
In an interview broadcast on Iranian state television, Faye Turney said she and 14 other British sailors were captured because they "obviously... trespassed" in Iranian waters, BBCNews.com reports. Turney, whom Iranian leaders said would be freed either today or tomorrow, also described her captors as "friendly" and "thoughtful." In addition to the interview, a video of the 14 male sailors still being held captive was broadcast on Iranian TV.
Turney's claim that she and her colleagues had crossed into Iranian territory, which she also stated in a handwritten letter to her family according to CNN, contradicts the U.K. Ministry of Defense's earlier claim that the sailors were in Iraqi waters.
"It's completely unacceptable for these pictures to be shown on television," the British Foreign Office responded in a statement, AP reports. "There is no doubt our personnel were seized in Iraqi territorial waters."
The video shows Turney dressed in white with a black scarf, "eating with sailors and marines" and seated smoking a cigarette in a room with "floral curtains." The entire British crew is also apparently shown briefly "in an Iranian boat in open waters immediately after their capture."
