Iran, British ministers discuss captured sailors

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran is considering charging 15 British sailors with illegally entering its waters and may grant Britain access to its navy personnel when Tehran's investigation is complete, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett "expressed concern regarding the detention of the British soldiers and asked for consular access to them in Iran" during a telephone conversation with Mottaki, said Mansour Sadeghi, a spokesman for Iran's U.N. mission.

Mottaki in turn voiced concern about "the incursion of the soldiers into Iranian territorial waters," Sadeghi told Reuters.

"He said that this issue is being studied and is being considered by appropriate Iranian authorities and after the investigation is finished the possibility for the consular access will be accorded," Sadeghi said.

The 15 British Navy personnel were captured at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which marks the southern stretch of Iraq's border with Iran, in the Gulf on Friday.

Earlier on Sunday, a day after Mottaki addressed the U.N. Security Council after it imposed new sanctions against Tehran for refusing to stop uranium enrichment, the minister said Iran was considering charging the sailors.

"The charge against them is the illegal entrance into Iranian waters and this issue is being considered legally," Mottaki told a news conference in New York.

"The Iranian authorities intercepted these sailors and marines in Iranian waters and detained them in Iranian waters and this has happened in the past as well," Mottaki said.