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Freed Brits to leave Iran tomorrow 
Sailor: 'Thanks for releasing us. I wish you success'

Wearing broad smiles and shiny suits, the 15 sailors and Marines seized by Iran lined up for a farewell propaganda parade yesterday.

Moments earlier, hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had dramatically freed them as an Easter "gift" to Britain.

The slick, stage-managed performance provided the final flourish to a spectacular PR coup for Tehran which left Britain humiliated in the eyes of many.

The hostages, held captive for almost a fortnight, are expected to fly home today to the delight of their families and "profound relief" voiced by Tony Blair.

The Government strongly denied any deal with Tehran to win freedom for the seven sailors and eight Royal Marines. But Britain was left looking weak and vulnerable in the Gulf after being outplayed and out-thought by Iran.

Quite apart from the embarrassment over how - and why - Iran was able to seize the servicemen and young mother Faye Turney without a shot being fired, the Government had to endure the nightly parade of hostages making "video confessions" shown around the world.

Less than an hour after Ahmadinejad’s stunning announcement, Iran’s statecontrolled television continued to milk the moment.

The Britons were pictured queueing to shake hands with their beaming jailer-in-chief outside his presidential palace.

The men, previously shown in combat fatigues, were in two-piece or three-piece suits hastily provided by their captors. Mrs Turney wore a blue top and trousers over a striped T-shirt and an Islamic hijab.

Ahmadinejad inquired after their health, wished them well - and even cracked a joke.

He asked one of them: ‘How are you? So you came on an enforced vacation?’

The reply: "Well, I wouldn’t look at it like that, but you could call it that..."

The service personnel, captured on March 23 at the mouth of the Shatt al Arab waterway which divides Iran and Iraq, are said to have "shouted for joy" at news of their release, punching the air and backslapping each other.

They spent their first night of 'freedom’ under the supervision of Iran’s Foreign Ministry and are due to be handed over to British diplomats this morning.

Britain appeared to have been taken by surprise by Ahmadinejad’s announcement and in a brief, carefully-worded statement outside No 10, the Prime Minister insisted there had been no negotiations with the Iranians.

Neither he nor the Iranian leader made any mention-of an apology, which Iran had demanded from the outset.

Mr Blair said: "Throughout, we have taken a measured approach, firm but calm, not negotiating but not confronting either.

"And for the Iranian people I would say simply this: We bear you no ill will, on the contrary we respect Iran as an ancient civilisation as a nation with a proud and dignified history."

Signs of an end to the international crisis came late on Tuesday night when it emerged that Mr Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser Sir Nigel Sheinwald had been in direct telephone contact with Iran’s chief negotiator Ali Larijani.

News that an Iranian diplomat captured in Iraq had been freed, along with suggestions that Tehran would be given access to five of their countrymen arrested by the Americans in Iraq, heightened speculation that a ‘deal’ might be taking shape.

Syria and Qatar pressure on Iran but there was still no inkling of the Iranian president’s intentions during the first part of his 90-minute speech.

He had criticised Britain for deploying Mrs Turney, mother of a three-year-old daughter, to the Gulf.

"Why was the difficult task of searching the seas given to a mother thousands of miles from home?" he demanded.

"Why is there no respect for motherhood, for the love of her child? How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don’t they respect family values in the West?"

According to one official Iranian website Mrs Turney "burst into tears" as an interpreter translated Ahmadinejad’s words about her.

e went on to denounce "tyrannical" Britain and the U.S., and moments before his dramatic announcement praised the Iranians who had seized the British hostages, theatrically pinning a medal of bravery on the chest of the Revolutionary Guard commander.

Ahmadinejad then declared: "On the occasion of the birthday of the great Prophet (Mohammed) and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people - with all powers and legal rights to put the soldiers on trial - forgave those 15. This pardon is a gift to the British people."

He said he was freeing the hostages despite Britain not being "brave enough" to admit they had made a mistake in straying into Iranian waters.

He said the British government had "sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry pledging that it will not happen again".

Ahmadinejad also asked Mr Blair not to "punish" the captives for their "video confessions".

The Foreign Office refuses to discuss details of a diplomatic note it delivered to Iran over the weekend but remains adamant that the British hostages were in Iraqi waters when they were captured.

While it was Ahmadinejad who made the announcement, it was not his decision. The firebrand president was apparently against the release and was overruled by Iran’s supreme leader, the more pragmatic Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But he allowed Ahmadinejad the limelight of announcing the release and then greeting the freed hostages in front of the cameras in what Tehran described as the "process of release".

Among those shown on TV were Lieutenant Felix Carman, 26, from Swansea, and sailor Nathan Summers, 21, of Hayle, Cornwall.

Lt Carman is heard saying: "We are very grateful for your forgiveness. We would like to thank yourself and the Iranian people."

The President replies: "Good luck, sir," to which the officer responds: "Thank you very much, sir."

Sailor Summers said: "Thank you very much for our release," which the interpreter explained was because "of the birthday of the Great Prophet of Islam’.

Summers replies: "I appreciate everything. Your people have been very kind to us and I appreciate that very much."

Ahmadinejad tells him: "Have success and be successful."

Captain Chris Air, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, was asked whether they were aware they were to be freed. He said: "No, no, it’s come as a complete surprise."

When one reporter asked the president if he thought the Britons had been happy while in Iran, Ahmadinejad replied confidently: "Yes, they were - because there is a war in Iraq, and Iran is a safe country."

Iran’s avid bloggers raced to their computers to trumpet their satisfaction. Their views were summed up by one who wrote: "Iran has won the PR game."