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Iran’s Swift Release of U.S. Sailors Hailed as a Sign of Warmer Relations Iran’s Swift Release of U.S. Sailors Hailed as a Sign of Warmer Relations
(about 9 hours later)
TEHRAN — Iran’s release of 10 United States Navy sailors on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after they were detained on the Persian Gulf, is being hailed in both countries as a sign that their relations have evolved since the signing of the nuclear accord last summer. WASHINGTON — A crisis over the seizing of two American patrol boats in the Persian Gulf was averted Wednesday when Iran returned the craft and released their crews as Pentagon officials struggled to explain how the boats had ended up near a major Iranian naval base.
Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the Iranians “for their cooperation in swiftly resolving this matter” and suggested in a statement that the quick resolution of the issue was a product of the nearly daily back-and-forth that now takes place between Washington and Tehran, after three decades of hostility and stony silence. Their quick release was hailed by the Obama administration as an unintended benefit of the new diplomatic relationship with Iran established by the nuclear accord negotiated between Tehran and the United States and five other nations in July. The accord is expected to go into effect next week, ending the oil and financial sanctions imposed on Iran over the past decade, and giving it access to around $100 billion in frozen funds.
In an appearance later Wednesday at the National Defense University in Washington, Mr. Kerry said that his focus on diplomacy with a country “we hadn’t talked to for 35 years” before the nuclear negotiations had paid off. Thanking the Iranians for their cooperation, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that “we can all imagine how a similar situation might have played out three or four years ago.”
“These are always situations that as everybody knows, if not properly handled, can get out of control,” Mr. Kerry said. “We can all imagine how a similar situation might have played out three or four years ago.” Mr. Kerry negotiated the release in at least five phone calls with Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister. Senior American officials described the American-educated Mr. Zarif as clearly worried that the episode could sink the nuclear accord on which he and President Hassan Rouhani have staked their legacies.
The crew members of two patrol boats were detained on Tuesday after what Iranian state news media described as “trespassing” in Iranian waters near a major naval base. Similar episodes in the past, like the seizure of British marines in 2007, have developed into prolonged standoffs that further alienated Tehran and the West. Mr. Kerry, one of his top aides said, in essence told Mr. Zarif at one point that “if we are able to do this in the right way, we can make this into what will be a good story for both of us.”
This time was different. The Pentagon and the State Department initially said that one of the boats had experienced mechanical problems en route to Bahrain from Kuwait in a routine mission on Tuesday, and that the Iranians appeared to have accepted the explanation. But it is still not clear how much influence Mr. Zarif had over the events: The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has been engaged in an open power struggle with Mr. Rouhani’s government. It is still not clear who decided to release the sailors.
On Wednesday morning, however, after the crew members and boats were returned, defense officials said they no longer believed that mechanical problems were the cause, noting that both boats returned to United States custody under their own power. Even as Mr. Kerry was describing the release on Wednesday morning, American military officials were offering new explanations about how the two 49-foot patrol boats, formally called riverine command boats, ended up in Iranian territorial waters.
Defense officials said that they were still trying to untangle the chain of events that led to the episode. Of particular note, they said, was the question of how the military lost contact with not one, but two boats. Several officials noted that the crew members were relatively young, junior enlisted sailors. After first suggesting that a mechanical failure had disabled at least one of the boats, they acknowledged that there was no mechanical problem. Both boats were returned to the United States under their own power, leaving Pentagon officials to untangle the chain of events that led to the episode.
For now, questions about the incident itself seemed secondary to how it was resolved. While the countries still have a long way to go before normalizing relations, analysts say a less charged atmosphere that allowed the speedy resolution is a reflection of changing priorities in Tehran and Washington. But they could not explain how the military lost contact with not one, but both of the boats. Several officials noted that the crew members were relatively young, junior enlisted sailors. They were commanded by a lieutenant, and Iranian government-controlled television was playing video on Wednesday of one of the sailors, apparently the lieutenant, apologizing for entering Iranian territorial waters.
“The top leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not looking for any tension with America,” said Nader Karimi Joni, a journalist aligned with Iran’s reformists who once served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he added, the “whole system sought tension.” “It was a mistake, that was our fault, and we apologize for our mistake,” the sailor said. “My navigation system showed I was in Iranian waters but I made a mistake and entered.”
He continued: “Now, things have changed. Both sides, America and Iran, are in direct contact and they seek détente. Currently there is no need for anti-Americanism.” A Defense Department official said that the Navy lieutenant’s filmed apology was probably intended to defuse a potentially volatile situation. There are military rules of engagement that advise American prisoners of war to disclose as little information as possible to their captors. But the United States and Iran are not at war, and such rules would not apply, the official said.
The sailors’ release was announced shortly before 10 a.m. on an Iranian state-run news channel, IRINN. “The detained U.S. sailors, after it was realized that their entry into Iran’s territorial waters was unintentional, and after the sailors apologized, were released into international waters in the Persian Gulf,” the channel reported, attributing the statement to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The riverine boats were used extensively on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers during the Iraq war and now operate in pairs in the relatively cramped Persian Gulf. They often come to the edge of Iranian waters, which extend 12 miles off the coast of Farsi Island, Navy officials said.
The United States Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain confirmed the release, saying in a statement that there were “no indications that the sailors were harmed during their brief detention” and that the Navy would “investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors’ presence in Iran.” “When you’re navigating in those waters, the space around it gets tight,” said one Navy officer with extensive experience in the gulf.
The sailors were being flown to an American military facility in Qatar, where they were to be debriefed and given medical exams, a senior Defense Department official said. But that is hardly a new problem, and the boats’ crews would almost surely have mapped out their course in advance, paying close attention to the Iranian boundary waters. And each boat has radio equipment on board, so it was unclear how the crews suddenly lost communication with their base unless they were surrounded by Iranian vessels before they could alert their superiors.
The defense secretary, Ashton B. Carter, released a statement commending the “timely way in which this situation was resolved” and thanked Mr. Kerry “for his diplomatic engagement with Iran to secure our sailors’ swift return.” “Look, these are kids riding around in cool, cammy boats,” said the Navy officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, referring to the boat’s camouflaged exterior.
The quick release of the sailors stands in sharp contrast to the episode eight years ago involving the British marines, which developed into a major international standoff. As details trickled in to the Pentagon, senior military officials expressed dismay about the episode.
In 2007, 15 British marines were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards Navy, which accused them of entering Iranian waters. The sailors were held for 13 days before the government of Mr. Ahmadinejad, then the president, set them free during a televised farewell ceremony in which they were given new suits and carpets as parting gifts. “The Iran story is frankly embarrassing,” said one senior Defense Department official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments. “We still do not know all of the facts, but these guys and gal apparently were just poor mariners.”
A prominent conservative Iranian analyst with ties to the senior leadership emphasized that in the current incident, both sides had sought to keep tensions low. Along with every other encounter with Iran these days, the episode fit into opposing story lines — an administration account of Washington and Tehran inching toward a new relationship, and an alternative one, put forth by opponents of the nuclear deal, in which the White House is being outmaneuvered by the mullahs, Iranian commanders and English-speaking Iranian diplomats.
“This time, the Americans were cooperative in proving their innocence, and they quickly accepted their faults without resistance,” the analyst, Hamidreza Taraghi, said in a phone interview. “The sailors apologized for having strayed into Iranian waters.” Mr. Kerry emphasized Wednesday that the sailors had been well treated, given “blankets and food” and released as soon as the sun rose over the Persian Gulf. He cast that as a benefit of renewed dialogue with the country, and thus a vindication of President Obama’s engagement strategy.
Also playing a role was the strong relationship that has developed between Mr. Kerry and the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, during negotiations on the nuclear deal, Mr. Taraghi said. An alternative account came from Senator John McCain of Arizona and other Republicans. Mr. McCain said the argument “that the Iranian nuclear deal somehow aided in these sailors’ return is ludicrous,” adding, “These sailors were ‘arrested’ in apparent violation of international law and centuries of maritime custom and tradition,” because their boat was in distress.
“John Kerry and Zarif were on the phone during the past hours, and this helped the problem to be resolved quickly due to their direct contact,” he said. “This administration’s craven desire to preserve the dangerous Iranian nuclear deal at all costs evidently knows no limit,” Mr. McCain said.
Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said that it was too early to draw “big lessons” from the episode, but that it was clear the rapport Mr. Kerry has developed with Mr. Zarif was crucial to resolving it. The quick release of the sailors stands in sharp contrast to an episode almost nine years ago, involving Britain, that developed into a major international standoff.
“Secretary Kerry’s aggressive and early engagement in this, and open channel that he had and he has with his foreign minister counterpart is important,” Mr. McDonough said on Wednesday at a breakfast with reporters in Washington. “I do think that the open lines of communication, which are relatively new, are extraordinarily important.” In March 2007, as the United Nations was just beginning sanctions against Iran, 15 British marines were arrested by the Revolutionary Guards Navy, which accused them of entering Iranian waters. The marines were held for 13 days before the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then the Iranian president, set them free during a televised farewell ceremony in which they were given new suits and carpets as parting gifts.
The detention and release of the sailors comes at a particularly delicate moment in the American-Iranian relationship, just days before a nuclear deal is to be formally put in place, under which the United States is to unfreeze about $100 billion in Iranian assets. A prominent conservative Iranian analyst with ties to the senior leadership emphasized that in the current episode, both sides had sought to keep tensions low.
That step is to be made after international nuclear inspectors verify that Iran has shipped 98 percent of its nuclear fuel out of the country, has disabled and removed centrifuges, and has taken a large plutonium reactor permanently offline. “This time, the Americans were cooperative in proving their innocence, and they quickly accepted their faults without resistance,” the analyst, Hamidreza Taraghi, said in an interview. “The sailors apologized for having strayed into Iranian waters.”
On Wednesday, inspectors with the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Iran to oversee the decommissioning of the Arak heavy-water reactor, which is capable of producing plutonium that could be used to make a nuclear weapon. The removal of the reactor’s core and its replacement with concrete are some of the final steps before the nuclear accord is put in place. The measures are expected to be completed in the next few days, Iranian officials said. Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said that it was too early to draw “big lessons” from the episode, but that it was clear the rapport Mr. Kerry had developed with Mr. Zarif was crucial to resolving it.
Many American and Middle Eastern officials say they believe that recent actions by the Iranian Navy against American forces in the gulf may be intended to embarrass Mr. Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani. The Revolutionary Guards were responsible for the military side of the nuclear program, and many of its senior officers have objected to the nuclear agreement. “Secretary Kerry’s aggressive and early engagement in this, and open channel that he had and he has with his foreign minister counterpart, is important,” Mr. McDonough said on Wednesday at a breakfast with reporters in Washington. “I do think that the open lines of communication, which are relatively new, are extraordinarily important.”
Mr. Rouhani campaigned for office on the promise of getting a nuclear deal and freeing Iran from economic sanctions, and he is said to be anxious to accomplish that before crucial parliamentary elections in February.
Senior American officials said they were still not certain what political dynamic played out in Iran after Mr. Kerry called Mr. Zarif. “You could have imagined a situation in which Zarif told the Iranian military that they were endangering the nuclear deal, and the military said, ‘So what?’ ” a senior American official said. “That didn’t happen. And that’s good news.”
Many Republicans in Congress are as committed as Iran’s hard-liners to short-circuiting the nuclear deal. Mr. Obama issued a veto threat on Monday against a House bill that would delay implementation until the president can certify that Iran has reported all of its past work toward designing a nuclear weapon. International inspectors recently declared that Iran had a program “consistent” with weapons work through 2009, but that it had then ceased. Iran has always denied it ever sought a weapon.
While Mr. Obama and Mr. Rouhani both face opposition from conservatives who want to kill the nuclear deal. But as the current incident suggests, opponents of the deal — in Iran, at least — may be playing a losing hand.
The United States Treasury Department is expected to place some new sanctions on Iran for recent missile tests — which are separate from the nuclear pact — but that effort has been delayed.