From the Daily Mail:

Five British sailors are being held hostage after their racing yacht may have inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters.

Foreign Office officials “immediately contacted the Iranian authorities in London and in Tehran on the evening of 25 November, both to seek clarification and to try and resolve the matter swiftly,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband said today.

And beg for their return.

However, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said he was not aware of reports a British yacht had been stopped. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry official mysteriously disappeared shortly after making this statement.

Fears were growing that the detention of the British sailors will dramatically increase tensions between Iran and the West.

Surely not.

The country has come under increasing pressure in response to its plans to build 10 new nuclear fuel plants.

Why don’t we offer to build them for Ahmadinejad in exchange for the return of the hostages?

In March 2007 HMS Cornwall made headlines around the world in March when seven Royal Marines and eight sailors were arrested at gunpoint.

The humiliation was compounded as the Iranians gleefully exploited the propaganda opportunities in the following days, broadcasting footage of the hostages apologising for straying into Iranian waters, and warmly thanking president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for releasing them.

After thanking Ahmadinejad for letting us build his nuclear plants we should accessorise them with a few intercontinental ballistic missiles. Perhaps he’d start to like us then.