Blair is left to make a statement of disgust after the airing of another video from captured British troops
European foreign ministers failed last night to back Britain in a threat to freeze the €14 billion trade in exports to Iran, as the hostage crisis descended into a propaganda circus.
Tony Blair could only issue a new statement of disgust as Iran tormented him with another sailorÂ’s video confession and a fresh letter from the young mother detainee.
A first written message from the Tehran Government offered some hope of a deal, but time is running out before the Iranian new year holiday ends and militant students and politicians return to business.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Germany called for the sailors to be freed but ruled out any tightening of lucrative export credit rules. The EU is IranÂ’s biggest trading partner. British officials are understood to have taken soundings on economic sanctions before the meeting but found few takers.
France, IranÂ’s second-largest EU trading partner, cautioned that further confrontation should be avoided. The Dutch said it was important not to risk a breakdown in dialogue.
...Britain’s response to the seizure of its sailors and Marines has been branded weak by Republicans in Washington. John Bolton, until recently the US Ambassador to the United Nations, described the Government’s incremental approach as “pathetic”.
He said that Mr Blair should be threatening “real pain, real economic sanctions” unless Iran released the sailors immediately. “Britain has got to be tougher here,” he said.
Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, urged Britain to threaten military force to destroy IranÂ’s petroleum industry.
more at link... if you can bear to read it.
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