Iran releases British sailors

Tehran: Iran released 15 British sailors yesterday as a "gift" to the people of Britain in a dramatic end to a two-week ordeal that had triggered a new diplomatic crisis between Tehran and the West.

As relatives and friends celebrated in Britain, the naval personnel were seen on state television chatting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his surprise announcement of their release.

"Although Iran has the right to prosecute them by following the model of the Prophet the 15 people were pardoned and their freedom given as a gift to the British people," Ahmadinejad said at a Tehran press conference.

The announcement was welcomed by the British and US governments and relatives of the captives, some of whom had been paraded several times on state television "confessing" to trespassing in Iranian waters.

An aide to the president said the 14 men and one woman would fly out of Tehran today, although Ahmadinejad had initially said they would be going home yesterday.

The eight sailors and seven Marines, all in their 20s, were seized at gunpoint while patrolling the northern Gulf between Iran and Iraq on March 23.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed their release although a spokesman declined to comment on whether there were conditions attached. "The disagreements we have with your government we wish to resolve peacefully," Blair said in comments directed to the Iranian people. "We bear you no ill will."

Sky News reported that Syria and Qatar played a key role in resolving the crisis. A newspaper in Kuwait had reported Syria's involvement earlier yesterday. The latest development followed the release in Baghdad of an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq in early February in an abduction Tehran had blamed on US forces.

Iranian state media also said five Iranian officials captured by US forces in northern Iraq in January accused of stoking unrest were expected to receive their first visit by an Iranian diplomat.