Britain has repeated its call for the release of the 15 detained British sailors as an Iranian diplomat said legal moves against them had already started, DPA QUOTED the media AS reporting Saturday. The Iranian ambassador to Moscow, Gholam-Reza Ansari, earlier told Russian television Vesti-24 that "legal moves to determine the guilt of the British sailors" had already been launched, the official news agency IRNA reported. "They will be tried if there is enough evidence of guilt," Ansari was quoted as saying. Reacting to his comments, the British Foreign Ministry spokesman said the British position remained unchanged. "We made it clear that they were seized in Iraqi waters and we demand their release immediately, as well as consular access," he said. The group of seven sailors and eight Royal Marines was seized from a British patrol boat in the Shatt al-Arab waterway on March 23 which triggered a diplomatic crisis between Tehran and London. Iran has accused the marines of illegally crossing into its territorial waters, but Britain insists they were in Iraqi waters and therefore has demanded their immediate release. The Iranian government Friday sent a note to the British embassy in Tehran asking Britain to "guarantee" that violations of its territorial waters in the Gulf would not be repeated. The Foreign Office in London said in response it would give "serious consideration" to the note.
