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Asefi rejects Hoon`s remarks

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 1, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi 
here Thursday expressed his surprise at the remarks made by 
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon concerning British sailors who 
had been detained for violating Iran`s territorial waters recently 
and termed them as incorrect. 
Iran seized three British naval boats which had entered its 
waters near the Iraqi border on June 21 and arrested their eight 
crews. They were handed over to British officials in Tehran last 
Thursday. 
Rejecting Hoon`s remarks, Asefi said when handing over the 
sailors, the British charge d`affaires in Tehran who had met the 
marines earlier confirmed by signing a record of the meeting 
with iranian officials that they had entered Iranian territorial 
waters by mistake. 
According to Asefi, the apology of the British sailors has also 
been recorded in the inked document. 
The British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in a phone conversation 
with his Iranian counterpart, Kamal Kharrazi, admitted that the 
sailors had entered Iranian territorial waterways by mistake. 
"We expect the British officials to comment on the basis of the 
accurate information and facts," he added. 
In a written statement to parliament, Hoon has claimed that the 
crews said in debriefings that they were operating inside the Iraqi 
border and were forcibly escorted into Iranian territorial waters. 
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