Iranian and US officials said Wednesday that 10 USA sailors detained overnight by Iran’s hard-line military unit have been released and are back in USA custody, concluding an episode that briefly threatened to mushroom into an global confrontation.
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We still don’t know the reason why the boats were stopped, but Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says the USA has been in touch with the Iranians.
The navy chief of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard said earlier Wednesday that the American boats showed “unprofessional acts” for 40 minutes before being picked up by Iranian forces after entering the country’s territorial waters.
“The Navy will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors’ presence in Iran”, the US statement said. The Pentagon said one of the boats had experienced mechanical problems while en route from Kuwait to Bahrain and strayed into Iranian territorial waters.
“If it is determined, after the investigation is carried out, that their action was not intentional, another approach will be taken”, he said.
Cmdr. Kevin Stephens, spokesman for U.S. Fifth Fleet, told ABC News the sailors were recovered aboard Navy cruiser USS Anzio, which was in worldwide waters, just outside Iranian territorial waters.
In other words, we’re looking at a situation that could have devolved into a serious incident, but seems to have been resolved within hours, not days, thanks to the administration’s effective diplomacy.
The incursion was “unintentional”, a statement from the Revolutionary Guards quoted by state media said.
The U.S. does conduct surveillance operations on Iran regularly in the Persian Gulf, and Iran also conducts surveillance operations of those surveillance operations.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., said it was “unthinkable that the administration would lift sanctions and permit Iran to receive billions of dollars in sanctions relief under the nuclear agreement, even as the regime brazenly violates its worldwide obligations and rushes to develop the ballistic missile capability to deliver a potential nuclear weapon to the United States”.
“The Americans have undertaken not to repeat such mistakes”, added the statement, which was read aloud on state TV.
News of the release into global waters came around 1:30 p.m.in Tehran, after previous reports had said the sailors would be released in the morning.
The drama unfolded as President Barack Obama gave his last State of the Union address, undermining any attempt to cite closer relations with Tehran as part of his legacy.
In 2007 the Iranian military seized 15 Royal Navy personnel off the Iran/Iraq border and held them for 13 days.
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Kerry and Zarif grew acquainted through the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.
