Iran Rolls Back on Pledge to Free Sailor

Chanting slogans, Iranian protestors hold banners demanding a trial and conviction for the British sailors and marines captured and being held during a protest in front of the Iran's Foreign Ministry in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, March 29, 2007. Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Britain must admit that its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture by the Mideast nation. Since the crew's detention, Britain has insisted they were in Iraqi waters. A Foreign Office official in London said no admission would be forthcoming because "the detention is completely wrong, illegal and unacceptable and we've set out the reasons why."(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) (Vahid Salemi - AP)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran on Thursday rolled back on a pledge to release a female British sailor, and a top official said the 15 captives may be put on trial.

Iran's foreign minister had said Tehran would soon free Faye Turney, the only woman among the sailors and marines seized last week while searching a merchant vessel in what Iran says were its territorial waters near Iraq.

But Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, Iran's military chief, said that because of the "wrong behavior" by the British government, "the release of a female British soldier has been suspended," the semiofficial Iranian news agency Mehr reported.

Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani also told state television that British leaders "have miscalculated this issue" and if they follow through with threats, the case "may face a legal path" _ presumably putting the Britons on trial.

Iranian state television broadcast a few seconds of video it said was of the operation that seized the British sailors and marines.

In the five-second video, a helicopter is seen hovering above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Then, the Royal Navy sailors and marines appear seated in an Iranian vessel, presumably after their capture.

Britain has circulated a draft press statement to the Security Council, asking it to "deplore" Tehran's action and demand the immediate release of the captives.

But Security Council diplomats said the statement is likely to face problems from Russia and others because it says the Britons were "operating in Iraqi waters" _ a point that Iran contests.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's government also said it was freezing most contacts with Iran. But Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted a government official as playing down the consequences.

"Tehran-London relations were already cold," the unidentified official said. Iran's Foreign Ministry is to deliver a letter to the U.N. to protest the violation of its territorial waters, IRNA said.

Britain enlisted international help to free the captives.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed their fate with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of an Arab summit in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, that both were attending.