Freed Britons land in London, ending Iran standoff

Thu Apr 5, 2007 7:44AM EDT

By Edmund Blair

LONDON (Reuters) - The 15 British military personnel freed by Iran after a two-week diplomatic stand-off arrived back in England on Thursday to cheers and to questions about the incident and its implications.

As flight BA6634 from Tehran touched down at London's Heathrow Airport at 12:02 p.m. (1102 GMT), the group burst into applause.

"These guys have been through a lot. They are just relaxing and having a good flight. They are just winding down," said one British diplomat accompanying the sailors, who declined to give any media access to them during the journey.

The group disembarked and posed for pictures before transferring to two waiting military helicopters to be flown to a base at Chivenor in Devon, 200 miles southwest of London, for a private meeting with their families and debriefing.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a news conference broadcast round the world on Wednesday he had decided to forgive and free the 15 sailors and marines even though Britain was not "brave enough" to admit they had strayed into Iranian waters.

The carefully stage-managed performance was seen by some as trying to soften the former Iranian Revolutionary Guard's vehemently anti-Western image abroad. But not everyone agreed.

"The bad news for Tehran is that the British people are now more likely to see Iran as the bad guy as a result of this," said Dan Plesch, author and commentator on nuclear proliferation at London's School of Oriental and African Studies