Carter also expressed frustration about the video released by Iranian TV purporting to show the 10 American sailors kneeling on the deck of their ship with their hands over their heads.
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Shortly before noon Wednesday the sailors used their boats to head towards the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Anzio which was located in global waters just off Iranian territorial waters.
In the end, Iran released the USA sailors – nine men and one woman – on Wednesday, a day after they were detained.
Defence officials said the main cause behind the Riverine boats entering Iranian waters was the navigational slip, apparently caused by human error rather than equipment malfunction.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter says the US Marines who trespassed into Iranian waters had made a “navigational error”.
U.S. Central Command said of the apology video, “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“.
It had been suggested that the revolutionary guard, which is controlled by Iran’s supreme leader and is separate from the government-controlled Iranian military, is attempting to sabotage Tehran’s nuclear deal with the USA and Europe, according to a Financial Times report.
The incident came to a quick and satisfactory end, which as Secretary of State John Kerry pointed out, is saying something when it comes to Iran.
The 10 USA sailors who were detained are now back with their American fleet and are getting debriefed and undergoing what the military calls “reintegration”, a series of interviews and physical and mental health examinations to ease their return to duty.
Some images also showed Iranian personnel viewing the sailors’ documents and handling their weapons and ammunition.
The Navy said it will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors’ presence in Iranian waters. He then added, “We did not mean to go into Iranian territorial water”.
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And the sailors were later told by their captors to “act happy” while they were being videotaped, CNN reported, according to an unidentified defense official familiar with the debriefing of the “tired and upset” sailors.
