Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Tehran has reportedly released ten American sailors, who had drifted into the country’s territorial waters and were arrested following this incident.

The sailors have been released after the U.S. apologized for the incident, Iranian media reported.

The IRGC earlier said it seized two U.S. navy boats with 10 sailors onboard on January 12. The IRGC Navy said in a statement released on January 13 that the U.S. navy boats entered Iranian territorial waters near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf illegally.

Releasing the photos of the American sailors, the IRGS said its boats escorted the U.S. vessels to international waters to release them there.

The United States also confirmed the release of the sailors. An identified U.S. official confirmed to the CNN that the marines had been released and had now boarded the U.S. missile cruiser USS Anzio.

The IRGC freed the US Navy sailors after it became clear that the American boats entered Iran’s territorial waters “unintentionally.” It added that the U.S. sailors apologized and pledged “to not make mistakes again.”

IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said after the incident that that the U.S. navy boats entered the Iranian territorial waters due to technical problems, adding the incident occurred due to failure of the navigation systems.

A senior U.S. defense official said the United States had lost contact with two small craft en route from Kuwait to Bahrain, Reuters reported.

Another U.S. official said mechanical issues may have disabled one of the boats, leading to a situation in which both ships drifted inadvertently into Iranian waters.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has contacted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the issue right after the arrest of sailors. Zarif reportedly had assured his U.S. counterpart that the crew would be released promptly.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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