The U.S. Central Command later said the “video appears to be authentic but we can not speak to the conditions of the situation or what the crew was experiencing at the time”.
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The sailors were later taken ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft, while other sailors took charge of the boats and headed towards Bahrain, their original destination.
The IRGC statement blamed the USA flotilla for its “excited and unprofessional moves”, but said the IRGC navy could handle the situation and restored calm to the region through powerful and wise moves.
For diplomats from countries without diplomatic relations, Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif sure are doing a lot of diplomacy.
Iran said the British sailors were released when their government apologised to Iran, but London denied that it had offered any apology.
A video shows USA sailors being detained by Iranian authorities after two American Navy vessels apparently drifted off course.
It said the sailors departed the Iranian base on Farsi Island at 0843 GMT on the same boats that brought them there.
CNN reported the sailors received medical checks aboard the USS Anzio.
Biden said that the Iranians realized the USA sailors “were there in distress and said they would release them and released them like ordinary nations would do”.
The news came after a series of mixed messages overnight from the state-owned media outlet. That deal, which offers Iran sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling key parts of its nuclear program, is to go into effect in “the coming days”, Kerry said. IRGC Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said the boats had strayed because of a broken navigation system.
In the footage, filmed before the sailors were released on Wednesday, the sailor says: “It was a mistake”.
The US House Foreign Affairs committee had then slammed the Iranians for the detention saying that the Islamic Republic had “once again ignored global law by seizing sailors in waters outside their jurisdiction”.
“When you follow the path of appeasement, it only emboldens the bad actors, and our prayers are that these sailors are released and they’re released quickly”.
He said the U.S. Navy’s presence “disturbed the security of the area” and criticized its maneuvers.
The reaction from the U.S. opposition to this new incident immediately played up this legacy, with many branding the detention of the soldiers a “hostage situation” before the release of any explicit information.
The release also comes just days before the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to verify that Iran has fulfilled the terms of last year’s nuclear deal with the United States, which lifts numerous sanctions worth billions of dollars off Iran’s financial, shipbuilding, software, automobile and oil industries.
Iran’s seizure of ten U.S. sailors on board two high-speed patrol vessels fits the pattern of brinkmanship bordering on contempt that Tehran continues to display toward the global community.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the sensitive incident publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.
The incident came on the heels of an incident in late December when Iran launched a rocket test near USA warships and boats passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state television is reporting that all 10 US sailors detained by Iran after entering its territorial waters have been released.
Kerry on Wednesday said that the 10 Navy sailors – nine men and one woman -appear to have been “well taken care of”.
In one incident, Iran temporarily seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship over what it said was a commercial dispute before releasing it and its crew more than a week later.
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Their two small boats were picked up on Tuesday en route from Kuwait to Bahrain, when they seem to have drifted into Iranian waters. She added the negotiations over the historic nuclear deal helped smooth the way to the “speedy resolution”. Its naval forces are heavily dependent on armed speedboats that can be used in teams to swarm much larger vessels.
