Sailors' press conference 'a show'

Press Association
Apr. 08, 2007

Iran's state television said the British military "dictated" to its sailors what to say in a press conference on Friday.

The former captives told reporters they were pressured while in custody to admit to being in Iranian waters.

In its news report on the sailors, Iranian state TV said they held a "pre-organised" press conference in which "the British sailors only read from pages dictated to them."

"They made statements completely different from what they had said in Iran and claimed that they were in Iraqi waters when detained," the TV newsreader said.

The newscast then turned to an in-house "political analyst," who called the sailors' press conference "a show."

"British military officials dictated it, but this show will not change the reality or undermine the credibility of the fact that the British sailors were in Iranian waters," said the analyst, who spoke to TV by telephone and was identified only by his family name, Zaraei.