Iranian state TV has rerun a video clip of one of the detained US sailors apologizing for the intrusion into Iranian territorial waters.
Advertisement
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said he was pleased the sailors had been freed and appreciated “the timely way in which this situation was resolved”.
A U.S. Naval Forces Central Command news release said the sailors departed Farsi Island shortly before 4 a.m. EST aboard the two riverine command boats they had been operating when they lost contact with the U.S. Navy. 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.
An unidentified USA sailor is seen apologising for his patrol boat having entered Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf by mistake in this still image taken from video taken at an unknown location on January 13, 2016.
A senior US defense official says the 10 American sailors briefly held by Iran are heading to a USA military facility in Qatar and likely have already arrived there. It said the Navy would conduct an investigation into the incident.
But Obama’s opponents argued that the sailors should never have been detained in the first place by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) and painted the episode as yet another example of belligerent Iranian behavior that had only been encouraged by a softer US stance towards Tehran. Still another shows an Iranian official going through documents apparently on board one of the American boats. Moreover, Kerry expressed gratitude to the Iranian government for their cooperation in handling the situation swiftly. “How many United Nations resolutions does Iran have to violate?”
Politicians who are against dealing with Iran accused the administration of hastily assessing that the sailors had been treated well.
“The deal may have been negotiated with Rouhani and Zarif, but it will be the Revolutionary Guards who will dictate the terms and dictate the implementation”. “‘If we let this become an worldwide incident, there is no way we can restore that sense of goodwill that we are trying to project,”‘ she added. Its naval forces are heavily dependent on armed speedboats that can be used in teams to swarm much larger vessels.
The incident came amid heightened tensions with Iran, and only hours before President Barack Obama was set to deliver his final State of the Union address to Congress and the public. Last month, Iran conducted a rocket test near USA warships and boats passing through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the route for about a fifth of the world’s oil. 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. Some called for a review of the nuclear deal in light of Iran’s actions.
Kerry and Zarif grew acquainted through the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.
Advertisement
After informal talks bet-ween Washington and Teh-ran, a statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Gua-rds, describing the sailors as Marines, was read out on state television confirming they were free.
