The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, today met Iran’s foreign minister as moves to find a diplomatic solution to Tehran’s detention of 15 members of a British naval patrol intensified.

However, both sides remained as far apart as ever, with the foreign office dismissing out of hand a demand from Tehran that Britain admit the patrol had strayed into Iranian waters.

Feelings were further inflamed yesterday when Iranian TV broadcast a video of the British sailors and marines, including a “confession” that they had entered Iran’s waters.

Mr Ban held talks with Manouchehr Mottaki in Riyadh, where both are attending an Arab League summit.

His spokeswoman said the detention of the British marines and sailors was one of the subjects they had discussed, but gave no further details.

Speaking in the Saudi capital last night, Mr Mottaki said the Britons could be freed very soon if the UK government accepted that the patrol had been in Iranian waters. “Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem,” he added.

The British personnel were seized near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, which forms part of the border between Iran and Iraq, last Friday.

Mr Mottaki’s remarks brought a scathing response from the Foreign Office, which said no apology was planned and called the crew’s detention was “completely wrong, illegal and unacceptable”.

The Iranian foreign minister said Iran would allow British officials to see the detainees, giving no further details. However, he played down his earlier prediction that the sole female captive, Leading Seaman Faye Turney, could be freed soon.

In a further indication of heightened feelings, the Iranian consul in Basra today accused British forces of surrounding the consulate and firing into the air in a deliberately provocative act.

UK military officials in the southern Iraqi city denied the claims, saying the shots came from a British convoy that was ambushed in the same street as the building.

Video footage of the captured Britons was shown by al-Alam, an Iranian satellite channel broadcasting across the Middle East in Arabic, yesterday.

Leading Seaman Turney was shown wearing a headscarf and smoking while giving an account of the incident, which was translated and voiced over in the broadcast.

“Obviously we trespassed into their waters,” she said. “They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we’ve been arrested … there was no harm, no aggression.”

The video included footage of other marines and sailors eating, showing no obvious signs of injury.

It also showed a handwritten letter, purported to be from Leading Seaman Turney to her parents, saying she had “written … to the Iranian people to apologise for us entering into their waters”.

The Foreign Office reacted furiously, calling the video “completely unacceptable” and expressing “grave concerns” about the conditions under which she had been persuaded to make her apparent confessions.

The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, condemned the video and the release of the letter, saying she was disappointed that a private letter had been used in a way that could only add to the distress of the families.

Britain has begun moves towards a UN security council resolution condemning the seizure of the personnel and the TV screening. Officials had not planned to go to the UN until next week, when the UK takes over the security council chairmanship.

However, the South African ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo - the current council president - said Britain had circulated a press statement on the hostages to the 14 other council members, which would be discussed today.

The Ministry of Defence yesterday issued a detailed account of the seizure of the naval patrol, with charts, map coordinates and photographs supporting Britain’s claim that it had been well within Iraqi waters when it was surrounded by Iranian gunboats.

Mrs Beckett also alleged that the Iranian government had changed its story over the past few days in an attempt to support its allegation that the two British patrol boats had entered its waters.

There is evidence that the 15 sailors and marines were captured and are being held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, (IRGC) which represents a state within a state with its own forces, political representatives and hardline ideology.

Iran is seeking the release of five officials arrested by US forces in Iraq in January, who Washington claims are senior members of the IRGC.

However, the Iranian foreign ministry has denied that Tehran is seeking a prisoner swap.

© Guardian News and Media