London, March 27 (NNN-KUNA) Iran has said that the 15 captured British service personnel are "fit and well," the UK Foreign Office said Monday.
Irans Foreign Ministry told British ambassador Geoffrey Adams at a meeting that it was working to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
A Foreign Office spokesman described the hour-long meeting as "business-like," with the ambassador pressing for details of where the detainees were being held.
He also demanded consular access to them and details of Iran's plans for their release.
"The Foreign Ministry assured us that the group were fit and well and in Iran, but gave no further details at this stage," the Foreign Office spokesman said.
The group was seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces last Friday in the waterway that divides Iran and Iraq.
The eight sailors and seven marines, including one woman, from the Type 22 frigate "HMS Cornwall," were carrying out a routine search of a large cargo dhow which they suspected of smuggling.
The diplomatic row is over whether or not their patrol boat strayed into Iranian waters.
The British Government is doing "everything possible" to secure the release of the 15 UK service personnel detained by Iran, Britains Defence Secretary Des Browne told the House of Commons Monday.
"I do not intend to comment further on this issue other than to say we are doing everything possible to secure their release", he said.
Meanwhile, in BAghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari Monday said the British navy personnel were in Iraqi territorial waters when they were captured and thus had to be immediately released.
The minister said in a statement he received a called Sunday evening from his Iranian counterpart Manuchehr Motaki to discuss the issue of the British sailors.
"According to information available to Iraqi authorities, the soldiers were arrested in Iraqi waters ... they were there as part of the Multi-National Force and had the consent of the Iraqi authorities in line with UN Security Council resolutions," Zebari said.