4:55pm Tuesday 1st December 2009
By Sian Davies
IRANIAN officials have been put under intense diplomatic pressure to respond to demands to release Southampton sailor Oliver Smith who has been held captive for a week.
Mr Smith, known as Oli, was skippering the Kingdom of Bahrain yacht with four other British crew, when it inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters.
The 60ft yacht was on its way to take part in the annual Dubai to Muscat race when it was boarded by Iranian navy personal and the crew seized.
This morning, foreign secretary David Miliband told reporters that they were expecting progress on the release of the five Britons and a statement by Iran by the end of the day.
However, hopes of a swift response were dashed when the demands were met by a silence by Iranian officials, and no statement was issued.
Earlier in the day Mr Miliband said: "Obviously our priority is for them to be released as soon as possible."
He revealed a positive meeting had already been held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the ambassador in Terhan. "We understand that the five young people are being treated well which is obviously good and right.
"It was a very professional meeting. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled it in exactly the right diplomatic and appropriate manner. They listened to all of his points and they promised that they would relay them to the appropriate authorities and they'd get back to him as soon as possible."
He stressed that the capture of the crew was a "human story" not a political one and had nothing whatsoever to do with winder international tensions surrounding Iran's bid to increase their nuclear capability.
"On that basis I hope that this will be resolved in a professional and speedy manner," added Mr Miliband.
However, the tone from Terhan struck a different note with Iran threatening "serious" action against the five detained British sailors.
Southampton yachtsman Oliver Smith, 31, was taken with four colleagues as they were sailing from Bahrain to Dubai.
The Foreign Office said it was looking into reports from Iran that ''serious'' action would be taken against the five if they were found to have had ''evil intentions''.
Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, hardline Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's head of staff, told the country's Fars news agency: ''Judiciary will decide about the five ... naturally our measures will be hard and serious if we find out they had evil intentions."
It was understood that the five detained yachtsmen were being held on the island of Sirri just off the Iranian coast. It was unclear whether there had been any consular access.
style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">Detained Sailors in a larger map
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