KHOODEELAAR! Told you so! Dubai going bust is indeed the tip of the Big Business fraud: The debts mountain is rising, no respite in sight

2312 GMT
London
Tuesday
01 December 2009

KHOODEELAAR! Told you so! Dubai going bust is indeed the tip of the Big Business fraud: The debts mountain is rising, no respite in sight


The Guardian's story about Iran, linking Dubai, is indicative of events that are not at all helping claims that Dubai will get steady.. The waters are definitely getting unsteady in the Gulf....

[To be continued]

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Seized sailors row escalates as David Miliband intervenes
Foreign secretary speaks to counterpart after Tehran warns of 'hard and serious' measures against five British yachtsmen
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James Meikle, Matthew Weaver and Sam Jones
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 December 2009 19.51 GMT
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Oli Smith (R) and Luke Porter, two of the five British yachtsmen detained by Iran. Photograph: MARK LLOYD/AFP/Getty Images

David Miliband spoke to Iran's foreign minister this evening about the five British yachtsmen seized in the Persian Gulf last week as fears grow for their safety.

The conversation, which followed an earlier claim from Miliband that the matter would be handled at consular level, came after the Iranian ambassador to the UK went to the Foreign Office for talks this afternoon.

Rasoul Movahedian's 30-minute meeting with the permanant undersecretary, Peter Ricketts, came after a close aide to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today warned the five men would face "hard and serious" measures if it were found they had "evil intentions".

The sailors were captured six days ago when their racing yacht was intercepted by Iran's navy while en route from Bahrain to an event in Dubai.

The incident was kept secret until yesterday as the Foreign Office sought to establish what had happened and tried to avoid raising the political temperature. But Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's head of staff, turned up the heat.

"Naturally, our measures will be hard and serious if we find out they had evil intentions," he told the semi-official Fars News agency, according to Reuters.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Ricketts had asked the ambassador for more information on the captives at their meeting this afternoon. "He stressed the need for Iran to confirm where the yachtsmen are being held, to grant us formal consular access to them, and the need for a speedy resolution to this matter," the spokesman said. "These were points we had been making for some days. Since it was now almost a week since the yachtsmen were held, the delay in providing a full explanation of what had happened and clarity on Iranian intentions were a matter of increasing concern."

It is thought the yacht, the Kingdom of Bahrain, may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said. The organisers of the race the sailors were due to compete in said the yacht had lost its propeller.

The vessel was being delivered by the crew to the annual Dubai to Muscat race, which was due to begin the following day. All the Britons were said to be safe and well and their families have been informed.

The crew members have been named as Oliver Smith, 31, Oliver Young, 21, Sam Usher, Luke Porter, 21 and David Bloomer.

Miliband told the Commons today there was no connection between the capture of the crew and the diplomatic clash over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"There is no link at all between the position of the yachtsmen and the Iranian nuclear file or other political issues that exist between Iran and the international community," he said. "We very much look forward to the yachtsmen being released on a consular basis."

The foreign secretary said the government was working with Tehran to ensure the men were released as soon as possible, adding that he understood they were being treated well, "as we would expect in Iran".

Gordon Brown's spokesman said the government was in close contact with the sailors' families. "The facts are emerging. We don't have all the facts in front of us," he said. "What we do know is these five yachtsmen were on the way to a race. They probably, and inadvertently, strayed into Iranian waters. We are in close touch with the families."

Asked if he was certain the yachtsmen were in Iranian waters, the spokesman replied: "The evidence appears to be that they strayed into Iranian waters."

Oliver Young's father told the thisisplymouth website he was sure his son was "fine". David Young, a Plymouth businessman, said: "He's travelled a fair bit, he's got quite a bit of experience under his belt. They'll be coping with it fine. We understand they are being well looked after.

"He's been doing this since he's 18. He's with a very good friend of his and two crew members. They've been out there on this project for a number of weeks now … We hope to see them very soon.

"It's just a worry that there are diplomatic stresses at the moment. They are under international pressure. We just hope they're not used as a bargaining chip."

Keith Mutch, general manager of the Dubai offshore sailing club, the race organisers, told the BBC: "In all of our sailing instructions, skippers are briefed to stay away from Iranian waters.

"I've been told, although I can't confirm this, that Team Pindar had lost her propeller. We were waiting for her to come and pick one up."

The shadow foreign minister, David Lidington, called for the sailors to be released immediately.

He told the BBC: "I think it is completely unjustifiable and I believe Iran should release these people from captivity without delay.

"There was no justification for them being arrested in the first place."

The Tory MP Ben Wallace, chairman of the British-Iranian all-party parliamentary group, said Iran was trying "make a point".

He told the BBC: "A normal nation would stop a yacht, check it out, maybe take it back to shore and get rid of them. But this is five, six days into the incident. That is much more worrying, that is more deliberate."

Communication with Iran may have been made more difficult since the incident occurred over the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha.

The race went ahead as planned. Sail Bahrain is the brainchild of Bahrain's King Hamad, who wants to develop sailing and other water sports in the Gulf region. The team has recently brought two 60ft Volvo racing yachts, of which the Kingdom of Bahrain is one, to the kingdom from Southampton after setting up the project with Team Pindar racing.

Bloomer, a DJ and sports broadcaster, has worked for the Bahrain Radio and Television Corporation for 25 years. He was expected to give regular updates on the 360-nautical-mile Dubai to Muscat race for which the yacht was headed.

Louay Habib, press officer for the Dubai offshore sailing club, said the yacht, which, when racing, would have had nine crew, ran into trouble about 60 miles off Dubai.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions over Iran's plans, announced on Sunday, to build 10 uranium enrichment plants. Iran's relations with Britain have been frosty since the country's disputed election earlier this year.

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