Contributed by: filbert Friday, March 30 2007 @ 08:22 AM CST
I don’t know why this isn’t the headline in every newspaper in the civilized world.
All credible evidence indicates that the British sailors were conducting themselves within international law, according to a U.N. Mandate, and were inside Iraqi territorial waters. By seizing the sailors, Iran violated the territorial integrity of Iraq, violated the U.N. mandate. The recent “confessions” by the British sailors are even more damning. By coercing and recording confessions from the British sailors, the Iranians are consistently and blatantly violating the Geneva Conventions regarding treatment of uniformed military. These could be considered, separately or together as a pattern of behavior, as acts of war.
The good news for Iran is that what they have done is not, technically, piracy. Piracy is by definition action by private (i.e. non-military) forces. If it had been piracy, Iran would have been open to reprisals from ANY law-abiding, sea-faring country. The United States happens to have two carrier battle groups in the area.
Iran is on very, very, very thin ice right now.