Iranian military officer: British sailors confess illegal entry of Iranian waters

    TEHRAN, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Iranian military officer General Alireza Afshar said on Saturday that the 15 British sailors who were detained by Iranian forces when they were patrolling off the Iraqi border Friday, have "confessed their mistakes of illegally entering Iranian waters", local Fars news agency reported.

    "Right now they are being interrogated, and they have confessed the illegal entry of territorial waters of the Islamic republic," Afshar was quoted as saying. Full story

Russian FM: UN resolution aimed at bringing Iran back to negotiating table

    MOSCOW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council's latest resolution on Iran was "not an instrument of punishment of the country, but a call for the resumption of the negotiating process," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

    "This document leaves the doors open for Iran to resume the talks and stresses its right to have access to peaceful nuclear power in full compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rules," Lavrov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying. Full story

Blair: Iran's seizing British sailors "unjustified"

    LONDON, March 25 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair described Iran's seizing British naval personnel in Iraqi waters as "unjustified and wrong," according to Sky News reports on Sunday.

    In a news conference at the European Union summit in Berlin, Blair said "this is a very serious situation and there is no doubt at all that these people were taken from a boat in Iraqi waters."

    "I hope the Iranian government understands how fundamental an issue this is for us," he said. Full story