This has a real potential to become a fire storm:

Fifteen British Marines on patrol in the Persian Gulf have been “seized” by the Iranian navy, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The Marines were “engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

A U.S. military official who monitors the region told CNN the Marines stopped an Iranian ship suspected of smuggling automobiles, and boarded it for an inspection.

The British ministry’s statement said the Marines “completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters.”

Now they are reporting that there is some debate as to rather the U.K. ship was in Iranian waters. I wonder if this would have happened if we talked to Iran in 2003 when they offered?