British Hostages to be Released

In what has widely been described as an act of war, Iran captured and took hostage 15 soldiers from international waters. Iran claimed the soldiers were in Iranian waters, and released the coordinates to prove it... except that the coordinates they gave proved that the British solders were NOT in Iranian waters. When confronted with this issue, Iran released a new set of coordinates to "prove" the British soldiers were in Iranian waters.

Iran held the British soldiers for almost two weeks, creating an international crisis and bringing Britain and Iran to the brink of war.

Today the crisis will be put to rest. Ahmadinejad has decided to "pardon" the British soldiers who were abducted by his country and held hostage for the past two weeks. This "gift" to the people of Briton is nothing more than a calculated political stunt.

Iran was in the wrong. At every step in the process, Iran was wrong and was facing severe consequences for their actions. Iran has now released the soldiers - soldiers they had no right to abduct and take hostage in the first place, so now what will the international response be?

Unfortunately, I fear this will prompt a "no-harm, no foul" response from the international community. If the West takes action against Iran for their discretions, the West will be seen as aggressors despite the fact that this would be a response to Iranian actions.

Meanwhile, Iran is still actively working to pursue the creation of nuclear weapons. Whether this hostage crisis was an attempt to divert attention away from Iran's nuclear aspirations is unclear. What remains to be seen is whether their will be a "honeymoon period" after the British soldiers are released, giving Iran much needed time to work uninterrupted on their Nuclear program.

I say that the moment those British soldiers touch down in England, the international community immediately begin focusing on a response to the hostage taking & further sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.