Ten sailors aboard two U.S. Navy boats were seized by Iran in the Gulf on Tuesday (January 12), and Tehran told the United States the crew members would be promptly returned, U.S. officials said.
A senior U.S. defense official said the U.S. had lost contact earlier in the day with two small craft en route from Kuwait to Bahrain. U.S. officials told Reuters it was unclear how or if the boats became disabled.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif assured U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the U.S. sailors would be allowed to continue their journey promptly, another U.S. official said.
While both sides appeared eager not to let the incident escalate further, it came at a delicate time for U.S.-Iranian relations. Iran and six world powers forged a landmark nuclear accord last July.
Formal implementation of the accord could begin in days following steps Iran agreed to take to curb its nuclear activities.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Iranian Revolutionary Guards had detained the vessels after they “illegally” entered Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf. The two boats were seized near Farsi Island 2 km (1.2 miles) inside Iranian territorial waters, it said.
It was the latest reported incident between U.S. and Iranian forces in the Gulf in recent weeks.
The U.S. Navy said late last month that an Iranian Revolutionary Guards vessel fired unguided rockets on Dec. 26 near warships including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran denied the vessel had done so.
Previous Iranian seizures involved British sailors and marines.
In June 2004, Iran arrested six Royal Marines and two naval personnel – part of a U.S.-led force in Iraq – for straying into its waters, stirring diplomatic tensions between the two. Following negotiations the eight were freed three days later.
In March 2007, Iranian forces seized 15 British servicemen – eight Royal Navy sailors and seven marines – in the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway that separates Iran and Iraq, triggering a diplomatic crisis at a time of heightened tensions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. They were held for 13 days.
In November 2009, Iranian naval vessels detained five Britons on a racing yacht en route from Bahrain to Dubai. They were released a week later. (Reuters)