Iran Loves Us, They Really Love Us

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Obama administration wasn’t willing to hold Iran accountable because it is too invested in the nuclear deal. “It was a mistake and that was our fault and we apologise for our mistake”, he said.

The Navy said there were no indications they had been harmed while in custody.

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

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he was pleased the sailors had been freed and appreciated “the timely way in which this situation was resolved”.

“It is clear that today this kind of issue was able to be peacefully resolved and efficiently resolved, and that is a testament to the critical role that diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong”.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the video did not violate the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war, because the U.S.is not at war with Iran.

This frame grab from Tuesday, January 12, 2016 video by the Iranian state-run IRIB News Agency, shows detention of American Navy sailors by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf, Iran.

The images show the USA sailors with their hands on their heads, while others show Iranians inspecting the machine-guns onboard and going through papers.

Kerry and Zarif developed a close working relationship during the nuclear talks, which concluded in July with a deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers of the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany.

Kerry last week said the agreement would be implemented “in the coming days”.

The immediate political response to the episode, even as details were still trickling in, underscored deep opposition to the Obama administration’s nuclear pact with Iran and its broader diplomatic detente with Tehran – and also cast in stark relief how much national security is imprisoned by partisanship.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended President Obama’s decision not to discuss the short-lived crisis in his State of the Union address.

Vice-President Joe Biden, speaking later to “CBS This Morning”, denied the US made an apology.

“Unintentional or not, this was a USA naval incursion into Iran’s jurisdiction”, Drezner wrote in The Washington Post on Wednesday, “Fortunately, Iran did not respond to this incident in the same way that, oh, I don’t know, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally recently responded to an aerial incursion”, he added, referring to Turkey’s shoot down of a Russian fighter jet last month. He says that’s “where they should have always been”.

Attributing the boats’ incursion into Iranian waters to a navigation error marked a de-escalation in rhetoric.

USA sailors were detained for nearly a day when they accidentally entered Iran seas.

The Revolutionary Guard’s official website published images of the detained USA sailors before their release, showing them sitting on the floor of a room.

The U.S. Navy unit was scheduled to return to its home port in San Diego in the next few weeks. When the USA lost contact with the boats, ships attached to the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier strike group began a search, as did aircraft from the Truman.

The Guards have also seized British servicemen on two occasions, in 2004 and 2007, and a civilian British yacht crew in 2009.