The Islamic Republic of Iran has finally affirmed the fact that, its elite Revolutionary Guards have infact seized a 60 feet luxury yacht in the Persian Gulf and have detained five British nationals who were aboard the vessel. Furthermore, the Iranian government has issued a warning stating that, the UK nationals could very well be subjected to “hard and serious” punishments, if their intentions are deemed hostile to the investigators.

Via the state run media outlet, Press TV, Ali Reza Tangsiri, naval commander to the Revolutionary Guards has said that, the Guards complied with their duties of “confronting foreign forces in the Persian Gulf.” and have indeed captured the luxury yacht named, King of Bahrain, with the five British nationals. The Presidential office issued a statement saying that there would be a judicial inquiry into the incident and the results will decide whether the five sailors will be punished or set free. According to Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie (Iranian Presidential Aide),

“Naturally, our measures will be hard and serious if we find out they had evil intentions. There’s certainly no suggestion of any malicious intent on the part of the five young people.”

The most troublesome point in this whole prisoner drama is that, the United Kingdom is part of the six party group, including America, Russia, China and other countries that has been continuously denouncing Iran’s growing nuclear ambitions. This has further deepened the drift between the Islamic state and the West and this could profoundly affect the outcome of the current prisoner situation.

Via New York Times.