Debka file reports:
Charles de Gaulle Aircraft Carrier
Iranian warship seizes 15 British seamen inspecting merchant ship for terrorists and arms in divided Shatt al Arab waterway
London is demanding the immediate release of the British sailors and marines and has summoned the Iranian ambassador to the foreign office. The Ministry of Defense claims Iranian vessels seized the British seamen on the Iraqi side of the waterway while they were searching merchant vessels for smuggled arms and terrorists in the Siban area near the al-Faw peninsula. An Iranian naval vessel then pulled alongside and detained them.
The Shatt al-Arb which flows into the Persian Gulf is divided between Iran and Iraq. DEBKAfile reported exclusively Thursday that the French nuclear carrier Charles de Gaulle and its task force had rendezvoused with the USS John C. Stennis in the Arabian Sea Wednesday for joint missions in the global war on terror.
The next day, Iran launched a new naval war game in the Persian Gulf. Just before the British sailors were seized, UK commanders in Basra accused Iran of being behind 90% of the violence in S. Iraq and paying out $250 to anyone willing to attack British troops.
Amid rising tensions in the strategic Gulf waters, DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose the American-French rendezvous was timed to coincide with the UN Security Council session Wednesday to debate expanded sanctions against Iran for continuing its banned uranium enrichment program.
The Iranians were bowled over by the appearance of the Charles de Gaulle opposite their southern coast, having assumed that Paris took issue with Washington’s tough stand on their nuclear activities and was seeking improved relations with Tehran.
However, Western military circles explain that the French president Jacques Chirac decided before he leaves office in May to repair the bad impression he left in early February when he urged the world - and Israel in particular - to learn to live with “an Iranian nuclear bomb or two.”
Rafale fighter-bombers on the French carrier’s decks will fly missions over Afghanistan alongside US warplanes.
Its arrival raises to four the number of Western aircraft carriers cruising within striking distance of Iran, including the USS Eisenhower and USS Boxer.
The Charles de Gaulle is accompanied by French Task Force 473, which consists of five warships: the FNS Cassard guided missile destroyer, the FNS Tourville anti-submarine frigate, the FNS Dupleix destroyer adapted for escorting oil tankers and the FNS Marne, a command and supply vessel. Captain of the French task force is Rear Adm. Xavier Magne. Commander of the American flotilla is Rear Adm. Kevin Quinn.