Tehran accuses MoD of dictating sailors' testimony

Iran hit back in the propaganda war with Britain last night as its state television accused the Ministry of Defence of dictating the comments made by the freed sailors and marines at yesterday's press conference.

The Iranian media made much of the fact that a sailor and a marine, who were among six of the released hostages at the press conference, read from a prepared statement. Television news showed the footage while a scrolling banner along the bottom of the screen read: "British sailors likely to be forced to make remarks against Iran."

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The bulletin was followed by a brief interview with a "politics expert", who said: "It doesn't change the fact that they admitted trespassing and the British Government admitted responsibility in a note and said that it wouldn't happen in the future." Britain maintains it sent no such note.

Baztab, an influential hardline news website that has often opposed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called the press conference "an attempt by the British Army and Government to counter their huge propaganda defeat in this crisis." It then mischievously said: "It now appears that the Iranian government's wish that they would not be harmed on their return to the UK has come true. It was expected that because of their confessions the sailors would be maltreated by the British government. But because of this press conference they will probably not be harassed any further by the Army."

A political analyst in Tehran said the military tone of the press conference would make it less likely to be believed by Iranians than the lower-key footage of the captives filmed by Iran. "Iran still has the upper hand in the propaganda war," he said.

On the nuclear issue, Mr Ahmadinejad also looks likely to further escalate Iran's nuclear confrontation during a ceremony on Monday at a facility suspected of developing nuclear weapons.

Mr Ahmadinejad in January said Iran would install 3,000 new centrifuges at the Natanz plant by this May, and last Wednesday when he made his announcement that the hostages would be freed, he promised "good news soon" about the nuclear programme.

The ceremony at Natanz is to mark "nuclear day", the anniversary of Iran's first production of enriched uranium. The Natanz uranium enrichment plant is at the centre of Western fears that Iran is trying to build an atomic bomb, an accusation Iran has always denied. Two weeks ago the UN Security Council toughened sanctions on Iran for pushing ahead with its enrichment plans despite repeated demands to stop.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran had installed two cascades of 164 centrifuges at the plant.However, the programme is understood to have been beset by problems and Iran has only enriched uranium to 5 per cent, far below the 85 per cent needed to fuel a bomb.