Detained US sailors are released

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has said it is interrogating ten American sailors it detained yesterday and dismissed talk of their prompt release.

Nartker was among the 10 USA sailors who were captured by Iran earlier this week.

Iranian state television has released footage that appears to show shaken American sailors being detained by Iranian authorities aboard their Riverine boats during a tense worldwide incident in the Persian Gulf Tuesday. It was reported that the Americans found themselves in the Iranian territorial waters on account of a navigation equipment malfunction. He said “we just don’t know yet” whether it was a “combination of factors” that led to the riverine boats moving into Iranian waters.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told The Associated Press that the boats were moving between Kuwait and Bahrain when US officials lost contact with them.

The sailor appears in the video saying he’s sorry that he and his crewmates entered Iranian waters in the gulf, which US officials said occurred due to a mechanical problem.

“(I am) happy to see dialog and respect, not threats and impetuousness, swiftly resolved the (US) sailors’ episode”, Zarif said in a post in his Twitter account.

According to the New York Times, Carter said the sailors were not on a covert mission and had known not to cross into Iranian sea territory but “obviously had misnavigated”. The State Department said Wednesday afternoon that US officials were looking into the videos and would respond if the USA determined that the sailors were treated inappropriately. “They’ve been talking to each other for over two years over the nuclear issue and other issues”, she says.

Officials have been revealing more details about the incident since the 10 sailors were debriefed after their release Wednesday.

A senior administration official said Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by telephone at midday Tuesday with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammed Javad Zarif, shortly after the incident unfolded.

Kerry credited the quick resolution to the “critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country secure and strong”.