LONDON, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Officials of the British Foreign Ministry in Iran have been working to seek clarification about a yacht that may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters and hoped to resolve the matter swiftly, the Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.

    On Nov. 25, a racing yacht owned by Sail Bahrain and crewed by five British nationals, was stopped by Iranian naval vessels. The yacht was on its way from Bahrain to Dubai and may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters. The five crew members are stillin Iran. All are understood to be safe and well and their families have been informed.

    Responding to the news, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the Foreign Ministry immediately contacted the Iranian authorities in London and in Tehran on the evening of Nov.25, both to seek clarification and to try and resolve the matter swiftly.

    "Our Ambassador in Tehran has raised the issue with the Iranian Foreign Ministry and we have discussed the matter with the Iranian Embassy in London. I hope this issue will soon be resolved," he said. "We will remain in close touch with the Iranian authorities, as well as the families."

    Miliband commented in more detail on the situation during an interview, saying that the five British people currently being held in Iran are civilians and not military personal, unlike British Navy personal held by Iranian authorities in 2007. As such the diplomatic handling of the current situation would be different.

    He said: "I think that this is an important consular matter for the five individuals. I think it's important to say that these are civilians and not Royal Naval personnel."

    Miliband said it's worth making the point that while you made the comparison with the Royal Navy personnel who were on active duty on the Iraq-Iran border, these are five civilians, they're yachtsmen, they were going about their sport and it seems they may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters.

    He added that "we look forward to the Iranian government dealing with this promptly and clearly. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran have said that they'll be making a statement later today, and it's obviously also important to point out that over the weekend it's been the Eid holiday in Iran and elsewhere in the Muslim world, and that perhaps explains some of the delay since Nov. 25."

    The foreign secretary said "but we look forward to the statement today, and, from our point of view, this is a purely consular matter involving five civilians, and we look forward to it being treated as such."

    Elaborating on the nature of negotiations and the timescale of the British citizen's release, Miliband said that there's certainly no confrontation or argument. "As far as we're aware, these people are being well treated, which is right and what we would expect from a country like Iran. We understand that the Iranian government are investigating the incident, which is perfectly reasonable, and then we look forward to it being promptly sorted out."

    He said: "I think it will be sorted out. Of course, foreign ministers talk to each other about these issues as well but our officials in London and in Tehran have been in touch with their Iranian counterparts. They've had perfectly good discussions about it."