"I actually would like to know what show of force the uk has in the region,i know the u.s has 2 carrier groups."

We should have one there by 2015+, escorted by some Ocean Patrol Vessels for the Iranians to sink.:)

-----------------------------------------------
Persian Gulf in opinion widens with Tehran demos
Last Modified: 01 Apr 2007
By: Carl Dinnen

Iran has allowed anti-British demos in Tehran and puts two more of the captured sailors on TV confessing to being caught in Iranian waters.


After a weekend when British ministers talked of quiet diplomacy, Iran appeared to press its advantage tonight.

Iranian TV is about to release what it calls "confessions" by two of the British sailors arrested by Iran's forces in the Persian Gulf 10 days ago.

The move follows demonstrations on the streets of Tehran - where the British embassy was pelted with rocks and firecrackers.

US President George Bush has called the capture "inexcusable behaviour", while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Britain had the "full solidarity" of the European Union.

A couple of hundred demonstrators gathered at the British Embassy in Tehran this afternoon.

Eventually missiles were thrown; rocks and firecrackers let off. Despite all the smoke, the Foreign Office said there were no injuries and no damage.

Harder line

But tonight the Iranian regime appears to be taking a harder line. They say they will broadcast two more confessions from the British personnel. If they go ahead, it will infuriate the government here.

The demonstration is also calculated to project a harder line, sanctioned by the government if not actually organised by it.

This stand off is widely viewed as an attempt by hardliners to strengthen their hand within Iran.

Yesterday, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad visited a military complex in the south of the country - he's reported to have said that Britain was not following the legal and logical way to resolve the issue.

Elsewhere there was support for the government's approach.

George Bush used the word hostage. The detention of the sailors and marines has evoked memories of America's own Iranian hostage crisis when some 70 US embassy staff were taken prisoner in 1979.

That crisis lasted for 444 days and some believe the current Iranian president was involved. Although no one expects this crisis to last that long there is a growing sense that it will not be resolved quickly.

And relations between the two governments remain tense; Iran protesting today about British operations near its consulate in Basra.

At Leading Seaman Faye Turney's family church this morning prayers were said for the 15 service personnel.

This evening the defence secretary Des Browne said the government was in direct bilateral communication with the Iranians. In other words they're at least still talking.

www.channel4.com/news/art...mos/372047

If good and evil are not rewarded and punished
The world is bound to go to the bad