'Yeah we trespassed without permission'

Tehran: This is the transcript of Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers' conversation with an unidentified person, broadcast on Iranian state television yesterday:

Summers: "My name is Nathan Thomas Summers, Royal Navy, I've been in two years, operate mechanical warfare.

(Inaudible) in 23 March 2007."

Voice: "Where?

Summers: "In Iranian waters while"

Voice: "Trespassing."

Summers: "Yeah we trespassed without permission."

Summers: "Since we've been arrested in Iran our treatment has been very friendly, we have not been harmed at all. They've looked after us really well. Basically the food they've been serving us has been good and we're grateful no harm has come to us. Just, I'd like to apologise for entering your waters without any permission. I know it happened back in 2004 and our government promised that it wouldn't happen again, and again I deeply apologise for entering your waters."

Propaganda

Meanwhile, Iran released a third letter purported to be from British detainee Faye Turney yesterday, in which she writes that the 15 captives have been "sacrificed" to US and British policies. The letter, released by Iranian authorities in London, also calls again for British troops to withdraw from Iraq.

British authorities have denounced Iran's use of the detainees for propaganda purposes.

"I am writing to you as a British service person who has been sent to Iraq, sacrificed, due to the intervening policies of the Bush and Blair governments," writes Faye Turney.

"I believe that for our countries to move forward we need to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and leave the people of Iraq to start rebuilding their lives," it said.

The letter was dated on Tuesday, the same as a second letter which emerged on Thursday, in which she questioned whether British forces should remain in Iraq. The document released yesterday includes a number of unusual grammatical formulations and errors. For example, it is addressed: "To British people," (sic). The end of another sentence is missing.

"We were arrested after entering Iranian waters by the Iranian forces. For this I am deeply sorry. I understand that this has caused even more distrust for the people of Iran, and the whole area of the British [sic].

"The Iranian people treated me well and have proved themselves to be caring, compassionate, hospitable, and friendly. For this I am thankful," she writes.

The letter also contrasts the Britons' conditions with those of prisoners in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail.

"Whereas we hear and see on the news the way prisoners were treated in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi jails by the British and American personnel, I have received total respect and faced no harm," she writes.

And it concludes: "It is now time to ask our governments to make a change to its behaviour towards other people," she concluded.