The sailors were being held on Iran’s Farsi Island in the middle of the Persian Gulf, senior US officials told NBC News.
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The sailors were captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), whose leaders are aligned with the regime’s hardliners who oppose the now-historic Iran nuclear deal.
Iran detained the sailors after their boats drifted into Iranian waters following apparent mechanical problems.
US Secretary of State John Kerry contacted Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif over the incident.
A senior USA defense official says the 10 American sailors briefly held by Iran are heading to a US military facility in Qatar and likely have already arrived there. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive incident publicly. They have now been taken to a US military base in the region where they will undergo a structured reintegration program for American military personnel that have undergone some form of detention, officials said. Kerry thanked Iranian officials for their cooperation and quick response. One official said the two vessels, which often patrol shallow waters near Bahrain, had failed to make a scheduled rendezvous with a larger ship to refuel.
In 2007, Iran captured 15 British sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf and accused them of trespassing in Iranian territorial waters. They were expected to be transferred Wednesday to a US ship in the region.
United States and Iranian officials scrambled to defuse the situation, which unfolded as Iran prepares to finally implement a nuclear deal with world powers aimed at ending the Islamic republic’s long global isolation. For the US that means suspension of nuclear-related sanctions on Iranian oil, banking and commerce. Last week, the U.S. Navy released black-and-white video that showed Iranian Revolutionary Guards vessel firing unguided rockets at U.S. warships, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman in the Strait of Hormuz on December 26.
Two Republican presidential hopefuls say they’re outraged over Iran’s detention of U.S. Navy soldiers.
As he walked into the House chamber Tuesday night for President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, Kerry said the sailors were “going to get out”.
Pictures of the U.S. boats, which had green-and-black camouflage patterns, were also shown by state television.
“The Sailors departed Farsi Island at at 8:43 a.m. GMT, aboard the two Riverine Command Boats (RCB) that they had been operating when they lost contact with the U.S. Navy”.
The nuclear accord foresees Iran scaling back its activities to put an atomic bomb outside its reach in exchange for relief from crippling worldwide sanctions.
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The Treasury Department is expected to place some new sanctions on Iran for recent missile tests – which are not covered by the nuclear pact – but that effort has been delayed for reasons USA officials will not discuss. A draft of the sanctions declaration was circulated on Capitol Hill just before the new year and quickly leaked. The House was scheduled to vote Wednesday on GOP-backed legislation that would give Congress greater oversight of the landmark Iran nuclear agreement, which Republicans have derided as a victory for Tehran.
