This article has been updated.
Just days before billions in international sanctions are to be lifted on Iran as part of the much-maligned nuclear deal, the country’s most hardline force, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, seized two U.S. Navy ships, detaining and interrogating ten U.S. sailors as well as reportedly confiscating equipment. The sailors were returned Wednesday morning “unharmed.” In response to the alarming incident, Secretary of State John Kerry remarkably thanked Iran, while administration officials have been audaciously claiming that the debacle is proof that their nuke deal negotiations are paying off.
“The White House says new lines of communication with Iran established during nuclear negotiations were key to getting 10 U.S. Navy sailors released quickly,” reports ABC News.
White House chief of staff Denis McDonough is warning against overreacting to the hostage situation and interpreting it as reflecting anything negative about our relationship with Iran. Instead, McDonough insists the sequence of events is proof of progress resulting from the Iran deal negotiations. Kerry’s ability to negotiate with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, said McDounough, shows the “extraordinarily important” lines of communication opened during the Iran deal talks.
Public statements out of Iran about the event, however, suggest a far less encouraging interaction between Zarif and Kerry. Iranian General Ali Fadavi, who accused the American sailors of “unprofessional” acts, said that Zarif assumed a position of strength and demanded an apology from the U.S.
“Mr Zarif had a firm stance, saying that they were in our territorial waters and should not have been, and saying that they [the US] should apologise,” said the general.
In response, Kerry thanked Iran for releasing the sailors “peacefully and efficiently.”
“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, ” said Kerry in a statement Wednesday.
In response to multiple reports that Kerry had actually apologized to Iran, Vice President Joe Biden appeared on “CBS This Morning” Wednesday to adamantly deny it.
“There’s nothing to apologize for,” said Biden. “When you have a problem with the boat you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice.”
Biden also tried to downplay the significance of the event and even tried to present Iran as having aided the sailor, who “were there in distress” and were finally “like ordinary nations would do.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter described the situation in similar terms, saying, “Around the world, the U.S. Navy routinely provides assistance to foreign sailors in distress, and we appreciate the timely way in which this situation was resolved.”
Over $100 billion in sanctions are expected to be lifted Monday following reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency will declear that Iran has “fulfilled its commitments under July’s nuclear accord with world powers.”
UPDATES:
Biden’s emphatic denial that the U.S. did not apologize to Iran has been proven to be false. Here’s footage showing that the U.S. did in fact apologize, describing the incident as our “mistake”:
Here are some of the deliberately humiliating images of the capture of the ten U.S. sailors released by Iran: