So on Wednesday afternoon, the sailors traveled on their two boats to a rendezvous point in the Persian Gulf, a US official said.
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The sailors were “safely returned” after departing Iran’s Farsi Island at 3:43 a.m. ET aboard the riverine vessels they had been operating when the incident occurred, according to the U.S. Navy. “I want to personally thank Secretary of State John Kerry for his diplomatic engagement with Iran to secure our sailors’ swift return”.
An Iranian military official said Wednesday 10 U.S. Navy sailors detained by Iran after drifting into Iranian territorial waters were expected to be released soon.
The wait for the sailors’ release Wednesday morning dragged on for hours, with Iranian officials interrogating the sailors about their motives and demanding a USA apology. Kerry said the situation could easily have gotten out of control and praised Iranian authorities for the cooperation and quick response and said the sailors had not been mistreated.
After Kerry and Zarif’s discussions, Tehran agreed to release the sailors and their boats and the incident was handed over to the two militaries to arrange the safe transfer of the personnel back to the United States fleet.
Pictures of the group of soliders released by Iran yesterday showed the group sitting on the floor in a non-descript room with plates of food and fruit in front of them.
MC1 LaTunya Howard/ap A naval commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard said that the boats, like the one pictured, had drifted into his country’s water because of a broken navigational system.
GOP criticism was fueled by Iran’s release of a video showing a sailor apologizing, saying, “It was a mistake”.
The nine men and one woman were detained on Tuesday after at least one of their boats suffered mechanical problems off Farsi Island, an outpost in the middle of the Persian Gulf that has been used as a base for Revolutionary Guard speedboats since the 1980s.
But new tensions flared up recently after the U.S. slammed what they called Iran’s “highly provocative” actions of firing unguided rockets last month near U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf including the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier.
The sailors were held for 13 days before the Iranian government released them. The sailors had been detained aboard two US Navy patrol boats in the Gulf on Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama praised his own administration for clinching a nuclear deal with Iran in his final State of the Union speech on Tuesday, pointing out that the deal prevented Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and thus saving the world from a catastrophic war. They said the boats had been in transit and had not meant to enter Iranian territory.
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Sen. Claire McCaskill (D, Mo.) said while the US didn’t trust Iran, it had a ‘working relationship with the country.
