Ahmadinejad Frees Hostages
Ignoring the fact that they shouldn't have been kidnapped captured in the first place - President Ahmadinejad made the most of this propaganda exercise with a huge news conference.
He spoke at length, attacking the West over its policy in the Middle East, and it was more than an hour before he even mentioned the captives issue.He repeated allegations that the Britons were captured in Iranian waters, and awarded medals to the Iranian commanders responsible for detaining them.
It was all part of the build up to his extraordinary theatrical gesture, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins.
"We have every right to put these people on trial," Mr Ahmadinejad asserted.
"But I want to give them as a present to the British people to say they are all free."
"I'm asking Mr Blair to not put these 15 personnel on trial because they admitted they came to Iranian territorial water", he added, referring to taped "confessions" made by the British sailors and marines.
I like that last final touch - pleading with Tony Blair "not to put these 15 personnel on trial" - I guess we should all be grateful to President Ahmadinejad and ensure that he gets all the military aid he requires - maybe we should offer to reprocess some of their spent fuel - after all he is so obviously a man to be trusted with nuclear power.
Tags: iranian hostage crisis, iran, ahmadinejad, propaganda, disinformation