US sailors held by Iran expected to be released soon

The IRGC spokesman, Ramazan Sharif, told Tasnim news agency on Wednesday that the IRGC wants to interrogate the crew before releasing them and said that, “If, during the interrogation, we find out that they were on an intelligence gathering mission, we will treat them differently”.

The Pentagon says that Iran has detained two U.S. Navy boats, along with 10 naval personnel, but has told the United States that the crew will be returned “promptly”.

“We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the ten crew members and the vessels will be returned promptly”, said Cook, before their release.

Iranian news agency Fars reported the vessels were more than a mile inside Iran’s waters near Farsi Island when they were detained.

A carefully worded statement did not explain how the sailors and their two riverine command boats ended up being detained by Iran, saying only that “the Navy will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors’ presence in Iran”.

Local media repleased photos of the American sailors before their release. They were picked up by Navy aircraft and other sailors took control of their boats for the return to Bahrain, where the USA 5th Fleet is based.

The IRGC said the captured U.S. troops, including 9 men and a woman, were treated properly, are fully safe and have been transferred to an appropriate location.

Kerry learned of the incident as he and US Defence Secretary Ash Carter were meeting their Filipino counterparts at the State Department, the official said.

Kerry didn’t mention any apology either in a statement on the sailors’ release, but expressed “gratitude to Iranian authorities for their cooperation in swiftly resolving” the issue.

At a presidential campaign rally in the United States, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who accuses President Barack Obama of being weak on foreign policy, described the incident as “an indication of where the hell we’re going”.

It is unclear what power Zarif may have to intervene. “You’ll only see this accelerate since the deal was signed with Iran”, he said.

Meanwhile, Iran was expected to satisfy the terms of last summer’s nuclear deal in just days. Iran denied the accusation.

The official said the Iranians understood that it was a mistake and had agreed to release the Americans in worldwide waters within hours, according to NBC.

In March 2007, Iranian forces seized 15 British servicemen – eight Royal Navy sailors and seven marines – in the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that separates Iran and Iraq, triggering a diplomatic crisis at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. “As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war”, he said.