The propagandistic appearances of the British sailors currently held hostage in Iran would not succeed in altering Britain's stance, Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman said on Monday.

 

 

"The Iranians know our position. They know that stage-managed TV appearances aren't going to affect that position. They know that we have strong international support," the spokesman said at a briefing.

 

"We remained very clear in our position and what our objective was, and will judge our response day to day accordingly," he said.

 

He revealed that a lot was happening "behind the scenes" to secure the release of 15 sailors seized by Iran in the northern Gulf waters more than a week ago, including a build-up "international awareness and pressure" on Iran.

 

On Thursday, the UN Security Council denounced the affair and called for an early release of the sailors. This call was echoed by the EU on Friday who issued a statement in Berlin, urging for an immediate release of the British soldiers.

 

Quizzed on any further UN or EU involvement, the spokesman said that the next step would depend on Teheran's response.

 

On Sunday, Iran's state-run Arabic satellite television Al-Alam aired new footage of two of the British naval servicemen.

 

The two man were shown separately in two video clips, both of them standing and pointing at a large map of the northern Gulf waters. They seemed to be talking but their voices could not be heard.

 

Al-Alam TV declared that they had confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters while out on an inspection mission, reiterating that the sailors were being treated well.

 

Iran has repeatedly come to loggerheads with the British over whether the UK boats were stopped in Iranian or Iraqi territorial waters.

 

The British Foreign Office again slammed the new footage aired by Iran, labeling it "unacceptable."

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2007)