LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's office sought to calm fears Monday that a dispute over the capture of a British navy crew would deepen tensions between Tehran and the West as Iran said it was interrogating the 15 British service personnel accused of illegally entering Iranian waters.
The detention of the Britons appeared likely to worsen relations with Iran at a time when Tehran is at odds with the West over its nuclear program and is accused of interfering with the Iraq war.
But Blair's spokesman said the prime minister intended to treat the seizure of naval personnel as a distinct issue. "This is a matter that should be dealt with on its own merits," he said.
Blair said Sunday he hoped the situation could be resolved in as diplomatic a way as possible, and his office stressed the British leader had been "very careful when he intervened," mindful of the potential repercussions on other issues.
The seizure of the crew was a matter to "be treated on its own, and that is how we are approaching it," Blair's official spokesman said.
Iranian officials said the crew were being interrogated and Tehran has rejected British requests to visit them, warning the personnel could face charges for allegedly entering Iranian waters a claim Blair's office has repeatedly rejected.
"There is no doubt in our mind that they were in Iraqi waters," Blair's official spokesman said Monday, on customary condition of anonymity.
Britain's Defense Ministry would not disclose details of positioning equipment carried on board the craft sailors were using when seized, but said it was "categorically certain" they had not strayed into Iranian waters.
Colin Breed, a British lawmaker who traveled on Britain's HMS Bulwark assault ship last year in the same waters as the seized crew said sailors constantly check positioning with satellite tracking systems.
"The navy was scrupulously careful they did not in any way encroach into Iranian waters," Breed said. "They have to be very precise and do that through satellite positioning."
British Ambassador to Iran Geoffrey Adams held talks Monday with Ebrahim Rahimpour, a senior Iranian Foreign Ministry official, who assured him the personnel 14 men and one woman are "fit and well" and being held inside Iran, Britain's Foreign Office said.
The U.N. Security Council agreed Saturday to tougher sanctions against Iran for its refusal to meet U.N. demands that it halt uranium enrichment. Many in the West fear the country's civilian nuclear research is a cover for a weapons program, a claim Iran denies.
Britain and the United States have said the sailors and marines were intercepted Friday just after they completed a search of a civilian vessel in the Iraqi part of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the border with Iran has historically been disputed.
The British government has few easy options for freeing it sailors, said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. He said that a rescue operation was out of the question, leaving Britain to seek some kind of negotiated settlement.
"Britain is in a very difficult situation, and this won't be settled easily," Cronin said. "They have to look at what is the least-worst option."
Analysts claimed the seizure was likely linked to tensions between the West and Iran, despite insistence from Blair's office that the incident would not affect wider diplomatic issues.
"It seems much more than coincidence that it happened right before the U.N. voted," said Alex Bigham, an Iran expert at Britain's Foreign Policy Center. "One could say, that yet again Iran has badly miscalculated and this is only going to further damage its relations with the international community."
Defense Secretary Des Browne told parliament on Monday that the British government was doing everything possible to secure the release of the crew.
In June 2004, six British marines and two sailors were captured by Iran and paraded blindfolded on Iranian television. They admitted they had entered Iranian waters illegally but were released unharmed after three days.
Scott Fallon, an ex-marine and one of the eight held in 2004, said his captors staged mock executions and accused him of espionage. "They just wanted to know our mission why we were there, why we were in Iran," Fallon told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. "I suppose the same thing will be going on with these guys.
Associated Press Writers Raphael Satter in London; Robert Reid in Amman, Jordan; Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran and Justin Bergman in New York contributed to this report.
