Iran releases detained US sailors in Persian Gulf

Iran just released the 10 U.S. Navy sailors it captured yesterday, but only after running them through interrogation and making the U.S. apologize profusely.

Iran state television released images of the 10 US sailors that the Iranian military held in custody overnight Tuesday.

“After determining that their entry into Iran’s territorial waters was not intentional, and their apology, the detained American sailors were released in global waters”, the Guard said. “They were released in global waters after they apologised”, it added.

The State Department denied that any apology took place – with spokesman John Kirby saying on Twitter there was “nothing to apologize for” – but welcomed news of the sailors’ release.

Ten sailors and two riverine boats were taken into Iranian custody Tuesday after their patrol boats drifted into the country’s territorial waters, according to the Navy Times. However, later Wednesday he said that an investigation showed the American vessels had entered his country’s waters due to a mechanical issue – which jibed with what USA officials had initially suggested.

The Americans’ small Riverine boats were sailing between Kuwait and Bahrain on a training mission when the US lost contact.

Senator Kelly Ayotte 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 global obligations and rushes to develop the ballistic missile capability to deliver a potential nuclear weapon to the United States”.

Cook says, “We have been in contact with Iran and have received assurances that the crew and the vessels will be returned promptly”.

In 2004 Iran seized six Royal Marines and two sailors after accusing British boats of straying too close to the Iranian coast in bad weather.

Still images of the two boats were also shown by state television. The troops were picked up by Iran. Hardliners in Iran are also opposed to the deal and rapprochement between Tehran and Washington. Riverine boats are 38-foot (12-meter) long, high-speed patrol boats used by the U.S. Navy and Marines to patrol rivers and littoral waters. There was no indication the sailors had been harmed.

The craft were supposed to have been refueled by another U.S. Navy ship in the Gulf so it could complete the journey from Kuwait to Bahrain, the U.S. official said Tuesday, but never made it to the refueling craft. He limited his comments about Iran to the recently-concluded nuclear deal curbing Iran’s atomic 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.

“Obama’s humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again”, Jeb Bush said in a tweet before the sailors were released.

“It’s possible to make a navigational error of that type, it happens to everyone once in a while”, a senior U.S. naval official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Revolutionary Guard spokesman Ramazan Sharif had said earlier Wednesday that the sailors would be debriefed before their release.

The capture of the Navy sailors was quickly seized on by US opponents of the nuclear deal as the latest in a series of provocations by Tehran since the deal was agreed.