BRITISH CREW HAS ADMITTED TO IRAN CHARGE

Iran's state-run Arabic-language TV channel has reported that all 15 British sailors and Marines have confessed to illegally entering Iranian waters.

The claim was carried by the news channel Al-Alam, a state-run channel that is broadcast across the Arab world, but not in Iran. There was no source given for Al-Alam's new claim.

The station has so far broadcast video footage of four of the 15 saying they were in Iranian waters at the time of their capture, including footage on Monday in which two of the sailors used maps to show the alleged location where they were seized.

The pair, named as Royal Marine Captain Chris Air and Lieutenant Felix Carman, looked in good condition, wearing clean smart military fatigues.

Captain Air, who appeared first, said they had been shown on a GPS that they were apparently seized inside Iranian waters.

He said: "So far we have been treated very well by all the people here. They have looked after us and made sure we are given enough food and treated very well by them, so I thank them for that."

Lieutenant Felix Carman said he would like to tell the Iranian people: "I can understand why you are so angry about our intrusion into your waters."

Both men gestured to points on the map behind them, close to the handwritten words "the point where intruding boats were captured".

The group was captured after conducting a routine early morning anti-smuggling check on a merchant vessel on Friday, March 23.

The British government has vehemently denied that the sailors entered Iranian waters, and has said the confessions appear coerced. Britain says the sailors were in Iraqi waters operating under a UN mandate, and has released its own maps and GPS co-ordinates showing their alleged locations.