D Wednesday, December 2, 2009 METRO By Fred Attewill Fears captured sailors will be held for weeksFEARS were growing last night that five sailors, including an Irish- man, captured by Iran could be held for weeks in an attempt to gain po- litical influence. And the British Foreign Office said yesterday Tehrans failure to explain itself was a matter of in- creasing concern. Earlier Iran warned the sailors faced serious punishment if they had intentionally entered its territo- rial waters. And Former UK ambassador to Iran Sir Richard Dalton warned the crisis would not be resolved in a matter of days. Journalist David Bloomer, from Wexford, in his 60s, was detained along with British citizens Sam Usher, 26, skipper Oliver Smith, 31, Oliver Young, 21 and Luke Porter, 21. Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, a hardline adviser to president Mah- moud Ahmadinejad, said the courts will decide the sailors fate but add- ed naturally our measures will be hard and serious if we find out they had evil intentions. But Britains foreign secretary David Miliband said: Theres cer- tainly no suggestion of any mali- cious intent on the part of the five young people. They were detained by the Iranian navy last week as they sailed their 60ft yacht from Bahrain to Dubai to start a race, and allegedly strayed into Iranian waters. Mr Miliband stressed the five men had no link with politics but their capture comes amid increased ten- sion between Britain and other Western powers and Iran over fears about its nuclear programme. Yesterday, Britain said it would not tolerate Iran developing nu- clear weapons and warned Tehran faced another UN security council resolution just days after it an- nounced plans for ten new uranium enrichment plants. The father of one detained sailor, 21-year-old professional yachtsman Oliver Young, from Cornwall, told of his fears the crew may be used as a bargaining chip. Department of Foreign Affairs of- ficials in Dublin and the Gulf have been liaising with Iranian diplomats over Mr Bloomers detention. The Irish Ambassador to Iran, John Deady, is expected to meet of- ficials in Tehran today. IRISH businesses are going bust at a rate of four a day, new figures reveal. Building, services, retail and hospitality firms were worst hit and accounted for more than two thirds. Ken Fennell, of online insolvency publication Kavanagh Fennell, said the number of collapses dipped since Julys high of 151, but had begun to climb again in the past three months. The overall picture for 2009 remains bleak with a total of 1,326 firms declared insolvent so far this year, he said. The average rate of monthly insolvencies stands at 121 companies per month, he added, saying should the rate continue it predicts 1,400 insolvencies this year. Four firms a day go bust Sailors held in iran: luke Porter, 21, Sam Usher, 26, Oliver Smith, 31, and Oliver young, 21 Irish captive a mentally tough guy Bloomer: will cope CAPTURED Irish sailor David Bloomer is mentally strong and will be helping his fellow yachtsmen during their ordeal in Iran, a friend said yesterday. Graham Smith, who sailed regularly with Mr Bloomer in Ireland before he emigrated to Bahrain in the 1980s, said everybody who knew him was worried. But he believes the radio presenter, in his early 60s, is physically and mentally fit enough to get through what he branded a strange scenario. I have absolutely no qualms that he will be extremely well able to cope with a situation like that... I would take him to be a mentally tough guy, he said. Mr Smith said he was offering his support to the Bloomer family and was hoping for a speedy end to the situation. Naturally, everybody will be worried in a situation like this, because you really dont know whats going on in the minds of the people that picked them up, he added. But its clearly an innocent situation. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html