2007年VOA标准英语-Britain Freezes Business with Iran Until Britis

（单词翻译）

By Sonja Pace
London
28 March 2007

Britain has announced it is freezing all bilateral² business with Iran, except efforts to gain the release of 15 British naval³ personnel seized by Iranian forces last Friday. As VOA's Sonja Pace reports from London, details released by the British military indicate its forces were inside Iraqi, not Iranian territorial⁴ waters, when the incident occurred.

 
Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in Ankara, 27 Mar¹ 2007
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett told the House of Commons the government would focus all its bilateral efforts with Iran toward gaining the release of the British sailors.

"We will therefore be imposing⁵ a freeze on all other official bilateral business with Iran until this situation is resolved," she said. "We will keep other aspects of our policy with Iran under close review and continue to proceed carefully."

Beckett's announcement is part of stepped-up activity by Britain to pressure Iran to release the naval crew.

Earlier in the day, Vice⁶ Admiral Charles Style presented maps and coordinates⁷, from positioning satellites, of the British patrol boats and the merchant vessel⁸ the British personnel had just finished searching when they were seized by Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

 
Vice Admiral Charles Style

 
"The position was 29 degrees, 50.36 minutes north; 48 degrees, 43.08 minutes east, and this places her 1.7 nautical⁹ miles inside Iraqi territorial waters," he said.

The vice admiral said the Iranians provided two different coordinates where they said the British patrol boats were. He said the first ones still showed the boats in Iraqi waters, while the second, "corrected" coordinates showed them to be inside Iranian waters.

Style described the detention¹⁰ of the British naval crew as an ambush¹¹.

Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Tony Blair said there was no justification¹² for the detention of the British sailors.

 
Tony Blair (file photo)
"It was completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal," he said. "We had hoped to see their immediate¹³ release. This has not happened. It is now time to ratchet up the diplomatic and international pressure in order to make sure the Iranian government understands their total isolation¹⁴ on this issue."

Iran insists the patrol boats were inside Iranian waters. The Iranians have said the British naval personnel are being treated well, but they have not allowed British consular¹⁵ officials access to them.