Quid pro quo

Here’s the quid:

Iran frees detained British sailors
TEHRAN, Iran Apr 4, 2007 (AP)— Iran on Wednesday freed the 15 detained British sailors and marines in what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called an Easter gift to the British people. Prime Minister Tony Blair said he bore “no ill will” toward the Iranian people.

Iranian state television said the 14 men and one woman, who were seized while on patrol in the northern Persian gulf on March 23, would leave Iran on Thursday. An Iranian official in London said they would be handed over to British diplomats in Tehran.

Ahmadinejad’s surprise announcement came at a news conference shortly after he pinned a medal on the chest of the Iranian coast guard commander who intercepted the sailors and marines.

Here’s the pro:

The call for talks came hours after Iranian diplomat Jalal Sharafi was freed by his captors in Iraq. He had been seized Feb. 4 by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shiite-controlled district of Baghdad.

His release raised hope for an end to the standoff and suggested the possibility of a de facto prisoner swap – something both Tehran and London have publicly discounted.

And here’s the quo:

TEHRAN, Iran Apr 4, 2007 (AP)— Iranian state media reported Wednesday that an Iranian envoy will be allowed to meet the five Iranians detained in January by U.S. forces in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil.

There was no immediate confirmation of the report in Baghdad, where neither Iraqi government nor a U.S. military spokesman said they knew that permission had been granted for such a meeting.

“A representative from the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad will meet” the detained Iranians, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said.

U.S. troops detained the five Iranians when it raided their office in Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous zone, on Jan 11. The troops also confiscated computers and documents.

No quid pro quo, my ass.

Now, if Tony Blair and George Bush really had some stones, they’d go grab them some Iranian Revolutionary Guards trespassing in Iraqi waters. And keep them.