<p>Iran: British crew crossed into Iranian waters six times; release of woman sailor suspended</p>
<p>TEHRAN (CNN) -- Iranian officials said Thursday that the British sailors and marines who were detained last week entered Iranian territorial waters six times before they were arrested, and announced that the promised release of the woman sailor was suspended due to Britain's "behavior" in the matter.</p>
<p>An Iranian naval spokesman said there is videotape and documents, including global positioning numbers, to back up their claims that the British crew entered Iranian waters.</p>
<p>The latest salvo in the standoff came as Iranian military commander Alireza Afshar announced that the release of Faye Turney was being suspended.</p>
<p>"The wrong behavior of those who live in London caused the suspension," Afshar said, according to the Mehr news agency.</p>
<p>Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had said Turney would be released "very soon."</p>
<p>Ali Larijani, the secretary of of Iran's Supreme National Council, said Tehran would like to resolve the issue through bilateral discussions and through an investigation of legal and technical issues, and again asserted that the British patrol boats entered Iranian waters illegally.</p>
<p>In London, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday that Britain would not seek a confrontation with Iran on the matter.</p>
<p>"We want this resolved. We do not want a confrontation over this. We want this resolved as quickly as possible," the spokesman told reporters.</p>
<p>British Foreign Minister Margaret Beckett announced Wednesday that Britain was freezing all bilateral diplomatic business with Iran until the 15 Britons were freed.</p>
<p>Thursday marked the sixth day Tehran has defiantly refused Britain consular access to the detained sailors.</p>
<p>They were arrested March 23 as they conducted anti-smuggling patrols near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf.</p>
<p>The waterway has long been the site of tensions between Iraq and Iran, which both claim it as their territory.</p>
<p>Britain insists that its sailors were in Iraqi waters, but Iran says the vessels clearly entered its territory six times before the crew members were detained.</p>
<p>The arrests prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity in and outside the Gulf, with several countries calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the Britons.</p>
<p>The United Nations Security Council is expected to discuss the issue Thursday.</p>
<p>U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Mottaki on the sidelines of the Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Thursday to talk about the situation.</p>
<p>In a videotape broadcast Wednesday on the Iranian Arabic language network Al Alam, Turney, wearing a black scarf covering her hair, said that her crew had "trespassed" into Iranian waters.</p>
<p>"Obviously we trespassed into their waters," she said.</p>
<p>"They were very friendly, very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we'd been arrested. There was no aggression, no hurt, no harm. They were very, very compassionate," Turney added.</p>
<p>It was not known when the videotape was shot, or if Turney, 26, was able to speak freely, since she is being held against her will.</p>
<p>The British government reacted angrily to that video and another showing Turney and other crew members eating a meal.</p>
<p>Beckett said she was "very concerned about these pictures and any indication of pressure on or coercion of our personnel who were carrying out a routine operation in accordance with international law and under a United Nations resolution in support of the Iraqi government."</p>
<p>Wednesday, the British Ministry of Defense gave what it said was proof that the British ship carrying the sailors and marines never strayed into Iranian waters.</p>
<p>British Vice Adm. Charles Style said the global positioning system on the ship proves the vessel was "clearly" 1.7 nautical miles inside Iraqi waters.</p>
<p>Iran insists the ship was inside its territorial waters and, according to Style, provided a map with coordinates on Saturday in an attempt to prove the point.</p>
<p>Style said those coordinates actually "turned out to confirm they were in Iraqi waters" and Iraq has supported that position.</p>
<p>Upon pointing that out Sunday through diplomatic contacts, Style said Iran then "provided a second set of coordinates" on Monday that were "in Iranian waters over two nautical miles" from the position shown by the HMS Cornwall and confirmed by the merchant vessel the British personnel boarded.</p>
<p>The "change of coordinates," Style said "is hard to legitimate."</p>
<p>-- CNN's Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report (Posted 10:40 a.m.)</p>