Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is better known for denying the Holocaust and demanding that Israel be "wiped off the map" than for gift-giving. But on Thursday, the Iranian president surprised the world by saying he would release 15 British Navy soldiers arrested by the Revolutionary Guard after they allegedly trespassed on Iranian waters on March 23.

The arrest of the soldiers, who had been patrolling the waters at the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab river, which marks the border between Iraq and Iran, sparked a major diplomatic row between Europe and Tehran -- a relationship already deeply strained by Iran's uranium-enrichment program and its apparent ambitions to build a nuclear bomb.

After freeing the prisoners, Ahmadinejad accused the British government of staging a media spectacle and taking the issue up with the United Nations Security Council unnecessarily. Newspapers in Germany and abroad speculate that a prisoner exchange deal may have been made by London and Washington in return for the British navy personnel. But British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the release had not been reciprocated in any way. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, an Iranian diplomat held in Iraq for eight weeks was released and the Americans have said they are considering providing an Iranian envoy with access to five Iranians taken custody by US troops in January, the New York Times reports.

On Thursday's editorial pages in Germany, most opinion writers see a grand PR victory for Ahmadinejad, who by releasing the prisoners was able to avert an escalation of the crisis. At one moment on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad was pinning medals on the Revolutionary Guards who arrested the Brits, and at the next he was wishing the freed British solders "success" in life. Some papers argue that the show of power underscored the weakness of Britain's Middle East policies.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"From the outside, at least, the Iranian regime has yet again stung with a smart political gambit. Ahmadinejad's appearance was reconcialiatory and at the same time one that symbolized his strength. First he gave the British and the Americans a rhetorical slap in the face. Then, before the world media, he pinned medals on the Revolutionary Guards who captured the British soldiers -- an award for arresting the 'British Invaders.' With a view to the fact that one of the arrested soldiers was female, he criticized the British government for sending women and mothers into danger zones. Then he released the 15 Brits."

"As Britain stood embarrassed on the stage of Ahmadinejad's little political theater, the Iranian president appears to have made a backstage deal. There are a number of suggestions that the Americans and the Brits agreed to release several Iranian diplomats and soldiers arrested in Iraq. … Once again, an Iran under pressure in its nuclear dispute has defended its position and saved face. That's not something the British can say."

The conservative daily Die Welt writes:

"His appearance was masterfully staged .... Ahmadinejad ... never tires of repeating the notion of Tehran as a stronghold of peace, love and truth. And what a sermon he delivered about the West, the USA and Britain. After he, a Muslim monotheist, recalled Jesus's suffering on the cross -- it is Holy Week, after all -- he then described Iran's sufferings throughout history. Among them was Western support given to Saddam Hussein during his eight-year war against Iran. The Iranian also took pains to exploit the Iraq war and public opposition to it in the Anglo-Saxon world. With his appearance, he wanted to underscore the leadership claim of a '7,000-year-old culture.' In preachy moral tones, he also lectured the liberal West about having betrayed the soul of humanity."

"But Ahmadinejad mentioned nary a word about the moral standards behind the inhumane treatment of the captives, who were exploited for propaganda purposes and forced to make false confessions. Nevertheless, he can still consider this to be a victory. But it may have been a pyrrhic one -- only time can tell."

The left-wing Die Tageszeitung writes:

"The British government will try to spin the soldiers' release as the product of pressure applied on Iran by Western states led by Britain. But it isn't. Ahmadinejad's gesture is a first-class PR coup that once again exposes what a huge mistake Blair's Middle East policy has been. He has long characterized Iran as a belligerent rogue state that finds itself in a state of war against a moderate Arab world and a West that want to bring peace and stability in the world.

"Blair has gone it alone with his Middle East policies -- just as he concentrated his power in the Labour party from the very beginning. But for Middle East policy, this has been a disaster. Instead of following the Foreign Office's well thought-out plans, members of his party are using the final months of his time in office in an attempt to make Blair appear in a better light in the history books. That's leading to an increasing number of bad decisions. His trip to the Middle East at the end of last year was tantamount to scoring a goal on yourself. Anyone who goes out and demands democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority but then supports the opposition because he doesn't like the outcome can't send any positive signals to British Muslims from whom he is demanding a commitment to democracy. When it comes to PR, Blair could learn a few things from Ahmadinejad."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"There's no way (the prisoner release) could have happened without the approval of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khamenei. From the very start, this whole episode was part of a power struggle in Iran that played out between different political and religious factions. The especially loyalist Revolutionary Guards, from whose ranks Ahmadinejad originates, apprehended the Navy soldiers. But it appears that the rest of Tehran's leadership wasn't as comfortable with this as the president, who it seems wouldn't have been bothered too much about further isolating Iran from the international community. But those in the realists' camp want -- in part to preserve their own viewpoints -- to prevent further economic damage and a further drift away from the international community. The camp is more open to reason."

Finally, the Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proven what no longer even needed to be proved: The Iranian president is a witty tactician and agitator … He 'pardoned' (the soldiers) as a 'gift to the British people,' he said. But more than anything, the 'gift' was one to his own people and to a Muslim world for whom Ahmadinejad likes to see himself as a hero. Look everyone, he seemed to be saying, this is how you humble a British government and, along with it, the West."

"To bid farewell to the British captives with a hospitable handshake was not a generous act but rather a cynical clean-up of an act of injustice. In the end, the PR show was the price the British government and its allies had to pay to avoid an escalation."