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Iran Issues Warning on Detained Britons

PARIS — Iran confirmed Tuesday that its Revolutionary Guards were holding five Britons seized in the Persian Gulf aboard a sleek 60-foot sailing yacht and said they would be subject to “hard and serious” measures if they were found to have harbored “evil intentions.”

Iran’s state-run English-language station, Press TV, said a Revolutionary Guards naval commander, Ali Reza Tangsiri, had acknowledged the seizure of the yacht Kingdom of Bahrain with its five-member British crew, saying the naval unit’s duties included “confronting foreign forces in the Persian Gulf.”

Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, an aide to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the semi-official Fars news agency that judicial proceedings would determine the fate of the five sailors. “Naturally, our measures will be hard and serious if we find out they had evil intentions,” he said, according to news reports.

The comments deepened apprehension among diplomats that the incident could further strain the volatile relations between Iran and Western nations at a time of high tension over Iran’s nuclear program.

Late on Tuesday, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, spoke to Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki about the five yachtsmen, Britain’s Foreign Office said.

“He pressed Mr. Mottaki for clear information on what had happened and for a statement of Iranian intentions in respect of the five,” the office said in a statement.

Mr. Miliband also sought to quash speculation about the sailors’ motives.

“There’s certainly no suggestion of any malicious intent on the part of the five young people,” he said.

Britain belongs to a group of six nations, including the United States, that sponsored a demand by the United Nations nuclear watchdog last week for Iran to immediately freeze operations at a once-secret enrichment plant, prompting a furious response from Tehran, which said it would build 10 more plants..

In the past, Iran has used incidents at sea to humiliate the British.

In March 2007, the Revolutionary Guards arrested 15 British sailors and marines, accusing them of entering Iranian territorial waters. President Ahmadinejad ordered their release two weeks later, characterizing the gesture as a gift to the British.

But the episode caused profound embarrassment among government and naval leaders in Britain. British officials have sought to avoid comparisons between the incidents and to insist that the detention of the sailors should not be drawn into the nuclear debate.

“This is a human story of five young yachtsmen,” Mr. Miliband said Tuesday. “It’s got nothing to do with politics. It’s got nothing to do with the nuclear enrichment program.

“It’s a consular case, which is being treated as a consular case by the U.K., and I’m sure will be treated as a consular case by the Iranian authorities,” he said. “It has no relation to any other issue. On that basis, I hope it will be resolved in a speedy and professional manner.”

The yacht, owned by Sail Bahrain, a racing organization, was seized on its way to Dubai from Bahrain after it accidentally crossed into Iranian waters, British and racing officials said Monday. Sail Bahrain said in a statement that it “may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters” and was stopped by Iranian naval vessels.

Somewhere along the way, the crew members radioed for help because there was no wind for the sails and the vessel had mechanical problems, meaning “they had no means of propulsion,” , said Louay Habib, who works for the Dubai Offshore Sailing Club. The crew called for a tow but Mr. Habib said it apparently never arrived.

The five were said to be “safe and well,” the British Foreign Office said.

It was unclear why the British authorities had waited five days to publicly report the seizure of the boat.

Concerns about the five sailors have deepened because Iran often prosecutes foreigners accused of straying into its territory.

In mid-November, Iran said it was pursuing spying charges against three American travelers who accidentally crossed into the country over the summer as they hiked through the Iraqi region of Kurdistan. Despite pleas from the hikers’ parents and calls for their release from the White House, the hikers are still being held in Iran.

The five sailors were identified in British news reports as Oliver Smith, Sam Usher, Luke Porter, Oliver Young and David Bloomer.

Alan Cowell reported from Paris, and Jack Healy from New York.

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