San Diego Sailors, Boats Detained by Iran Back in Navy Hands

The sailors and equipment were held for around 16 hours before being released unharmed Wednesday morning to return to their base in Bahrain.

This picture released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016, shows detained American Navy sailors’ boats in custody of the guards in the Persian Gulf Iran.

Earlier, a senior defense official said that Iranian authorities have assured us officials that they will allow the sailors to continue their travel.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi and Chairman of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi used Iranian media Thursday to commend the recent capture and release of ten USA sailors and their two riverine boats.

Iranian and US officials said a mechanical problem apparently caused the vessels to enter Iranian territory.

“It was a mistake, it was our fault, and we apologise for our mistake”, an unidentified sailor told an Iranian interviewer with the state-controlled TV station Tasmin.

A new polemic video published by the Iranian State television appears to show some American sailors that were arrested on Tuesday. “We did provide context, we did explain that this was basically a routine transmission that had not meant to end up anywhere on Farsi Island or in Iranian territorial waters”.

It is not yet clear if Lt. Nartker was directly ordered to make an apology in the video, the official said, CNN reported.

“(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. Global Positioning System devices aboard the boats enabled the Navy to determine, after the fact, that they were in Iranian waters, but the Navy was not immediately sure whether the crew members were safe or had gone overboard.

US officials had said on Tuesday that Tehran assured them the crew and vessels would be returned safely and promptly. But a spokesman for the U.S. State Department denied that, saying it was a rumor that Secretary of State John Kerry had apologized to Iran. “But I do want to say how good it was of Secretary Kerry and his aggressive work to get those sailors and those folks back so quickly”.