Well, Labour's new RN can cringe just as easily in international waters as in Iraq's, so what does it matter ?

L Stewart, Spalding, England

You can be sure that many more lies will be told about Iran in the future as well. The government need justification to join the americans and israelis in a bloody war that will result in the killing of millions in Iran.

Penny Wright, Leeds, West Yorkshire

As long as we as British ,US or whatever nation are seeking our own benefits in theri territory this will happen every now and then, the very ridiculous thing is that we are not only there with full loads of navals and soldiors but we also call their water Arabian Gulf instead of well historically, internationally known Persian Gulf. I am so sorry for the western world in 21st century, we are not good nations....

Bam, Utrecht, Netherlands

It's the PERSIAN GULF not the Arabian Gulf.

Maybe we should start calling the English channel the French Channel.

Kianoosh, Beijing, China

The important issue is that the sailors are all healthy and were released soon after the incident. Indisputably Iran treated them with respect and showed the civility and friendliness that exists in the Iranian culture and tradition. Unlike what some want to believe, the region belongs to those who are located there. The world must begin to accept the new Middle East. That is not Bush's Middle East. Hopefully UK will be able to talk directly to the Iranian regime and stay away from the warmongers in the US government.

Daryush, London, London

It is interesting how every dispute between US/UK and Iran, time after time eventually turns out to be the fault of US/UK and the US/UK governments are the ones who come up with huge lies and Iran seems to be consistantly telling the truth!

Should we be sad, sorry or depressed?

James, London,

Oh so now the british media decide to finally publish that it was in disputed territory when the MoD produce a document. I posted here at the time that it is well known that borders in the middle east are not concrete like many european countries, there are tribal areas and disputed territories abound in the middle east... this is how it is. All of this went unreported at the time by the british media, and instead we were fed with record number of news stories proclaiming that iran are enriching uranium to develop WMD and they are developing bombs to help al-qaida in iraq... all of which could not be proved... now it is surely embarrasing the amount of propaganda the british public was fed at the time.. with the majority of my friends believing it without question, how disconcerting!

Steven, Leeds,

Finally the truth is revealed. I wish people would just realize the government doesn't care about the truth. They only care that you believe the Iranians are evil just like they want you to.

Darius, Los Angeles, USA

Many thanks to President Ahmadinejad for delivering this important Wake Up Call to HMS Cornwall and the MOD but also for Iran's kind hospitality and generosity. This fiasco could have ended very differently.

Alison, Geneva, CH

Nevertheless, it cannot be said that the British boat was definitely in Iraqi waters, because there was no internationally recognised sea border.

I can't stand the British hubris which says, 'We are definitely in the right here,' when it was clearly in the wrong.

There's nothing positive to be said for the Iranians' kidnapping of the British crew either.

A sordid little nationalistic mess. On both sides.

James Kingdom, West Morland, UK

What a load of nonsense. The British boat was siezed by the IRGC "navy" because it was not properly supported by British or Coalition air and/or sea assets. Operating that close to Iranian waters, that boat should never have been sent anywhere at all without a proper plan for immediate air or sea coverage in case of an Iranian assault.

George Smith, San Antonio, Texas

Aggressors must always justify their actions in order fool the public and gain their support. It also helps justify money being spent for conquest and domination

Wallace, Mexico city,

The honourable gentlemen, the elected rerpresentatives in the UK democracy can not resist telling "untruths" in the parliment. Is it becuase they get away with it? or is it because it is all a game to them? or both? With the money they are getting , they would say anything!
It is the same again as before with the WMD, the Iraqi goverment was telling the truth and our honourable gentlemen were telling "untruths". For those who will remember, Mr A Eden and the Suez crisis in1956 when he calimed that the goverment had no prior knowledge of the attack on Egypt..
Any chance of the truth,real democracy, transparancey, etc...etc..
I think not

akil a elewa, RINGWOOD, HANTS

Partisan points aside Ii think the moral of this embarassing episode is that you should not take things at face value...wait for a year or so when under the Freedom of Information Act you force the govt to tel the truth....

Giles, Singapore, Singapore

All part of the American plan to try to create an incident to attack Iran. The Brits were being used as the bait. A few British soldiers in the interests of the US and Israel. Never mind.

Shaffiq Mahmood, Halifax, UK

This news item tells us that the capture took place in a disputed area. At the same time, let us not forget that the Iranians, when told that the coordinates they had originally provided, lay in Iraqi waters, supplied an alternative location. I wonder why.

Alice Cripps, Worthing, UK

Arabian Gulf!!!!!! I think we should study History and Giography again. "Persian Gulf" is the right name

Kamal, Ottawa, Canada

I care. Because I'm shamed at the incompetence of the Royal Navy that allowed this group of children to be ambushed. I'm disgusted at the lies told to us in Parliament. And I'm concerned that the standing of our country was damaged by the incident.

We have just seen two senior people leave BA because of the mess they made. Equally heads should roll at the Ministry of Defence.

Mike C, Chichester, England

What else has Britain lied about?

oxi, Chicago,

The fact that the RN boat was in International Waters was never in doubt as far as the free world was concerned. What was embarassing was the capture and the shame afterwards. Des Browne should have resigned over this as well as some of the officers involved.

kirk, Rotherham, UK

And we still haven't got any of our boats back!

Bob , Swadlincote, uk

Are there elements in US forces hoping to trigger an incident to use as a pretext for war with Iran ?

We know Duck Cheney would like to go out in a blaze of glory.

Chris, chesterfield, uk

(......mouth of the Shatt al-Arab [waterway] into the NAG [northern Arabian Gulf]...... ) Arabian gulf !!!! No body of water by that name has ever existed. The correct name is Persian Gulf

ben, manchester, uk

If there's no agreed line, then the Iranians were still in the wrong, because they couldn't have known whether or not it was their waters either.

JonB, Manchester, UK

So what's new? Anyone who has even a minor understanding of the region realises that a lot of these borders are disputed and these types of incidents are extremely likely to happen. The British Navy messed up seriously by leaving the vessel unsupported and the British government messed up by spinning an already embarassing story into a national humiliation.

Mike Pemberton, London, London

I can never believe the govenement again. They are a bunch of liars. They only serve US interests.

John, London,

I commented last year that the Persian gulf water boundaries near the Iraqi soil remains disputed. I also stated that it was not up to the UK or USA to muscle in and to try to draw an artificial line and set the boundary. Unfortunately, it appears that such intent and by default confusion lead to the arrest of our sailors. This is total arrogance and for us to think that a questionable UN mandate to be present in the Persian Gulf gives us the right to predetermine disputed territorial boarders beggers belief.
I also find our reference to the historic Persian Gulf as the arab gulf very rude and insulting to the Iranians and we should show more respect to a nation that has refered to this waterways as the Persian gulf for the last 2500 years. Our behaviour and our wording is provocative and we should be honest enough to face this fact. Lower down the Persian gulf, is the Arabian Sea. No amount of arab appeasement is going to change this historic fact and we should show more respect.

John, Cheltenham, UK

As British we have a notion that truth is important that we do not expect our government to lie to us 'for our own good' and that we are mature enough to deal with the truth. If this government is incapable of understanding this is it not time we changed it?

David Amerland, Cheadle, UK, Cheshire

A gutless performance by all concerned, especially the Secretary of State and his Admirals but not the Iranians who win this one hands down..

Michael, Wichester, England

Well, I care..it seems that the UK spin machine kicked in and fed us a load of rubbish when the incident occured. I never thought I'd be getting the truth from the Iranian news agency rather than the Uk media and Uk government.

paul Maggs, brighton, england

Des Browne lied to the public. On such a sensitive issue and during such a sensitive time with the Iranians, this is negligent.

Martin, London, UK

This means the incident could have triggered a devestating war between the brits and the iranians based on false information and incompetence. But according to the coments on this website it's a big no no when it's the americans do it but it's ok when it comes to other countries. To be honest it's hypocritical and scary.

john, london,

This was after all this fuss the media made over the capture, claiming that they were in Iraqi waters with "certainty". Furthermore exaggerate that "The British hostages were subjected to horrors"! Of course…. like when they were playing ping pong and chess! The other side plays a better game it seems, "water boarding"!
The Iranians would like to have guests. Nonetheless the choice is yours to be a guest or a “guest”.
Come on in please!

Aryan, Tehran, Iran

Yet more signs of incompitence by this Part Time Defense Minister. Let him go and run Scotland and put someone with some soldiering experience run the MoD.

Dean, Southampton, England

So in the end, it seems as unlikely as it is the Iranians were telling the truth. The British forces were in their waters and most importantly had raised their weapons in provocation. What else should have been expected, obedience of HM bullying sailors? so much for the rule of law?

Sean, Sydney

seanhammilton, Perth, Australia

Who cares? The embarassment is that the Iranian boat was not obliterated.

Nick, Rotherham, UK

The siezure was made by the Revolutionary Guard Corps' boats and NOT by the Iranian Navy.

The IRGC is well known for its smuggling activities and firm control over criminal rackets in Iran and Southern Iraq.

Since the Defence Ministry stated the reason the British boat was where it was due to smuggling activity, perhaps this has more bearing on the incident.

Even if the boundary had been set between the Iranian Navy and Coalition Forces, the IRGC still acts independently.

John Bates, Melbourne, Florida