Iran Releases 15 Captive Britons

"We had every right to put these people on trial," he said. "But I want to forgive them as a present to the British people, to say they are all free."

The gesture, which Ahmadinejad termed a "pardon," was being made to mark the prophet Muhammad's birthday on March 30 and the upcoming Easter holiday, he said.

"Unfortunately, the British government was not even brave enough to tell their people the truth, that it made a mistake," he said, once again asserting that the captives had violated Iranian territory. He denied that any deal had been struck in exchange for the release, saying, "When we do something due to Islamic goodwill, we do not expect to receive any rewards."

"We didn't want confrontation," he said in response to a reporter's question. "We wanted our rights. We didn't want to continue the tension. The British government acted badly. That prolonged the process."

After the news conference, Ahmadinejad was shown on Iranian television talking casually with the 15 Britons and shaking their hands. One could be heard saying, "Your people have been really kind to us, and we appreciate it very much." Another male service member said, "We are grateful for your forgiveness."

The British men, previously shown on Iranian television in military uniforms, wore dark business suits but, following the Iranian style, no neckties. Turney wore a blue jacket and blue-and-white head scarf.

In Britain, some relatives of the captives said they feared the celebrations were premature. "We want him on the plane and stood in front of us before we actually believe he's coming home," Maggie Phillips, sister of sailor Arthur Batchelor, told Sky News.

"Whoever has been in the right or wrong, the whole thing has been a political mess, so let's just get them home," said Ray Cooper, uncle of Adam Sperry, a marine.

The circumstances of the capture remain hotly disputed. It is unclear whether it was the act of a local commander that escalated out of control. In Iran, some analysts suggested that the incident was being used as a pretext for U.S. or British military action against Iran.

Foreign analysts have debated whether Iranian officials, bristling at their increased international isolation, staged the incident as a provocation -- to seek leverage to roll back U.N. sanctions or as a bargaining chip for the release of Iranians being held in Iraq.

Wednesday's announcement came a day after the release in Baghdad of a senior Iranian diplomat who had been abducted two months ago and held incommunicado. Iran accused the United States of being behind the Feb. 4 kidnapping of the diplomat, Jalal Sharafi, who returned to Tehran on Tuesday. U.S. and British officials deny the allegation.

There are also reports of intensified negotiations to secure the release of five Iranians detained by U.S. forces in January in Irbil, in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq. U.S. officials accuse the men of being members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, but Iran says they are all diplomats. On Wednesday, a U.S. general said they were allowed their first visit by a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The two-week standoff over the British sailors and marines was complicated by the uneasiness of Iran's diplomatic relations with the West, exacerbated in recent years by a bitter dispute over the country's fledgling nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council, at the strong urging of the United States, recently passed a resolution tightening financial and other sanctions imposed on Iran, demanding that it stop its uranium enrichment program, which many Western countries suspect is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.

Iran has refused, calling the issue a matter of national sovereignty and saying the program is legal under international law and strictly for generating electricity.

Researcher Karla Adam contributed to this report.