A showdown between Iran and Britain was averted last weekend when Tehran announced the release of 15 British service personnel it had taken hostage. The personal intervention of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad resolved the crisis, but it is yet unclear how the incident will play out in the murky world of Iranian politics. The outcome does vindicate those who counseled patience and diplomacy. Escalation would have triggered a full-blown crisis.

The most important details of the incident -- the precise location where it occurred -- are in dispute, but all the other facts are known. On March 23, 15 British soldiers and marines were seized as they inspected Iranian vessels "during a routine boarding operation" in the Persian Gulf. Facing "a major fight," they submitted to superior Iranian numbers, were disarmed and taken into custody, where they were blindfolded, bound, subjected to aggressive interrogation and threatened with seven years in captivity.

The Tehran government insists that the British were in Iranian territorial waters; the British soldiers and their government deny the charge, maintaining that the soldiers were 1.7 nautical miles within Iraqi waters when they carried out the inspection. Iran paraded several of the captured personnel on television, where they "confessed" to having been in Iranian waters. After their release, apparently at the personal intervention of Mr. Ahmadinejad, they said the statements were a media stunt.