Iran frees US Navy sailors held in Gulf after incursion
BBC.COM | Wednesday January 13, 2016 16:18
The US expressed its gratitude to Iran for freeing the sailors one day after they were detained when their vessel broke down in the Gulf.
Iranian state media said the group was released after apologising.
It comes at a sensitive time, as the US and Iran try to implement the deal on Iran's nuclear activities.
The incursion was 'unintentional', a statement from the Revolutionary Guards quoted by state media said.
Earlier, the naval commander of the Guards, Gen Ali Fadavi, said investigations found a navigational failure was to blame.
'We have concluded that passage of Americans in our territorial waters was not a hostile passage or for espionage or similar acts,' he told Iranian television.
The US is investigating how the sailors entered Iranian waters.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said he wanted to 'express my gratitude to Iranian authorities for their co-operation in swiftly resolving this matter'.
'That this issue was resolved peacefully and efficiently is a testament to the critical role diplomacy plays in keeping our country safe, secure, and strong,' Mr Kerry said in a statement.
Mr Kerry called Foreign Minister Javad Zarif shortly after the incident. The pair developed a personal rapport during the nuclear talks.
Those detained - nine men and one woman - were taken to Farsi Island, in the middle of the Gulf, where Iran has a naval base.
US opponents of the nuclear deal, which will see Iran limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, had expressed outrage at the sailors' detention.
'Iran is testing the boundaries of this administration's resolve,' said Marco Rubio, who is in the running to be the Republican party candidate.
'Obama's humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again,' rival candidate Jeb Bush said in a tweet before the sailors were released.
Iran's deputy nuclear chief has meanwhile denied a report the Arak heavy-water reactor had been decommissioned, which would be a final step towards implementation of the nuclear deal.
Iran's influential Revolutionary Guard - tasked with protecting the country's 1979 Islamic revolution - has strongly defended Iranian sea borders in the past.
Fifteen British sailors and marines were held for 13 days in 2007 after they were captured in a disputed area between Iran and Iraq.
Despite last year's breakthrough nuclear deal tensions remain between the US and Iran.
In December, Iran's navy conducted rocket tests near US warships in the Strait of Hormuz, something the US called 'highly provocative'.