Former Intel Officers | Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters

Former Intel Officers | Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters:

"Writing in his widely read blog (www.craigmurray.co.uk/weblog.html), Murray points to a 'colossal problem' with respect to the map the British government has used to show coordinates of the incident and the Iran/Iraq maritime border - the story uncritically accepted by stenographers of the mainstream press. Murray writes:

The Iran/Iraq maritime boundary shown on the British government map does not exist. It has been drawn up by the British Government. Only Iraq and Iran can agree on their bilateral boundary, and they have never done this in the Gulf, only inside the Shatt because there it is the land border too. This published boundary is a fake with no legal force.... Anyway, the UK was plainly wrong to be ultra-provocative in disputed waters....

They [the British Marines] would under international law have been allowed to enter Iranian territorial waters if in 'hot pursuit' of terrorists, slavers, or pirates.... But they were looking for smuggled vehicles attempting to evade car duty. What has the evasion of Iranian or Iraqi taxes got to do with the Royal Navy?

Ambassador Murray has appealed to reason and cooler heads. To state what should be the obvious, he notes it is not legitimate for the British government to draw a boundary without agreement of the countries involved:

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