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Islamic Republic holds UK troops
Most folks have probably heard about this at one point or another. If you haven't, essentially UK naval troops were boarding a ship suspected of car smuggling off the coast of Iraq in disputed waters. They were patrolling the waterway under a UN mandate (Resolution 1723). By British, American, and Iraqi accounts, the troops were in Iraqi waters. Iran claims them to have crossed into their own.
The short and skinny: The troops were approached by Iranian Revolutionary Guard gunboats and seized and are now being held in Tehran.
This sort of thing happened before with UK troops being seized by the Islamic Republic and held for, "crossing into [their] territorial waters." The timing of this event, however, seems to be a bit coincidental when stacked up along side the rhetoric coming out of Tehran. Essentially there are politicians suggesting there be a swap of prisoners in this instance. British troops for the Iranian Qods Force members that are currently being detained inside of Iraq by US forces.
Anyone's thoughts on this? Is this a familiar tatic often used by HAMAS and Hezbollah that's now being employed directly by Iran - where hostages are taken for the sole purpose of a prisoner swap? Or was the Islamic Republic right in every manner to detain the UK troops for patroling too close to the dividing line?
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"[Brian Blair] was a punk. I can break his fucking back - break his back and make him humble and then fuck his ass ... Suplex him, put him in a camel clutch, break his back, and fuck his ass - make him humble. Teach him to respect the Iron Sheik. And I didn't do it, because for the God and Jesus, and Mr. McMahon." -Khosrow Vaziri (The Iron Sheik)
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