Iran’s President Will Release 15 UK Sailors Immediately

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sprung another surprise: smack dab in the middle of what was getting to be an international crisis that seemed to be heading towards some kind of non-diplomatic solution, he has announced that he’s freeing the 15 captured British sailors:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran will pardon and set free 15 British sailors and marines being held in Iranian custody.

“I declare that the people of Iran and the government of Iran — in full power to place on trial the military people — to give amnesty and pardon to these 15 people and I announce their freedom and their return to the people of Britain,” Ahmadinejad told a news conference.

He said the Britons would be taken to the airport after the news conference. The action was a goodwill gesture for the Iranian new year which began last week, he said.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “We are looking at what has been said.”

Ahmadinejad said the 15 detainees had violated the country’s territorial waters and praised the border guards who captured them, presenting their commander with a medal for bravery.

“I thank the border guards who bravely protect our borders and also arrested the violators, and I grant them the bravery medal to their commander,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad was speaking after a senior Iranian official on Wednesday welcomed UK efforts to negotiate the release of the marines and sailors.

Iran’s parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel told an Iranian state broadcaster’s Web site that British efforts to negotiate the detainees’ release were “appropriate.”

The AP:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday that his government would release the detained 15 British sailors and marines promptly.

He said the sailors would be taken to Tehran airport at the end of the press conference that he was addressing.

He said he had pardoned the sailors as a “gift” to the British people and to mark the birthday of Islam’s Prophet Muhammed and Easter. …

….”On behalf of the great Iranian people, I want to thank the Iranian Coast Guard who courageously defended and captured those who violated their territorial waters, the president told a press conference.

He then interrupted his speech and pinned a medal on the commander of the Coast Guards involved in capturing the British sailors and marines in the northern Gulf on March 23. Two other Coast Guards came on to the podium and saluted during the ceremony.

“We are sorry that British troops remain in Iraq and their sailors are being arrested in Iran,” Ahmadinejad said.

And he had an editorial comment of sorts, too:

He criticized Britain for deploying Leading Seaman Faye Turney, one of the 15 detainees, in the Gulf, pointing out that she is a woman with a child.

“How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don’t they respect family values in the West?” he asked of the British government.

This section of the AP story, plus the release underscore a point: he’ll prove a particularly slippery adversary on the international stage, since he set up the crisis, took it to the brink, then pulled back portraying himself as magnanimous — and taking a swipe at the British for being soft on motherhood. This suggests less impulsiveness than a political shrewdness that could prove dangerous to his international adversaries who could underestimate him.

Even his comments about the U.S. and George Bush showed that, in his mind, at least, his country is dealing from a position of strength:

“”If Mr. Bush and his government change their behavior … this side (Iran) has the ability to reconsider” its ties with Washington, he said, without specifying what change he wanted to see,

One likely result of his releasing the British sailors: up until the release, the conventional wisdom was that Iran was on the verge of perhaps provoking some kind of military action from the U.S. (or Israel). While that could still happen, by freeing them he has removed what could have been used as a justification for military action — an inflexible Iranian government that would not let the soldiers go.