Posted on 01/12/2016 8:35:25 PM PST by huldah1776
Plans are in place for Iran to return 10 US sailors to a US Navy vessel in international waters within hours, after they were taken into custody while travelling from Kuwait to Bahrain.
Late on Tuesday, a US defence official said it was deemed safer to carry out the exchange in daylight early on Wednesday.
The plans call for Iran to bring the sailors to international waters, where they will be transferred to a vessel from the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear what would happen with the two riverine patrol boats that the sailors - nine men and one woman - were on when they were detained by Iran.
Both US and Iranian officials described the sailors, whose boats may have inadvertently drifted into Iranian waters, as safe and well-treated. US defence officials said nine men and one woman were aboard the two vessels seized.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told CNN that "We have received assurances from the Iranians that our sailors are safe and that they will be allowed to continue their journey promptly."
Official Iranian news outlets confirmed the detention of the 10 Americans, hours before US President Barack Obama was due to make his final State of the Union address to the US Congress before he leaves office in January 2017.
"The Revolutionary Guards naval forces seized the American boats two kilometres inside Iranian territorial waters while they were snooping around," Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said.
Officials from Iran and the United States were negotiating to free the crew, Fars reported.
Washington and Tehran, which have pursued a partial detente in recent years, both appeared eager not to let the incident escalate further.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif assured US Secretary of State John Kerry that the US sailors would be allowed to continue their journey promptly, another US official said.
Precisely what happened to the two US boats remained unclear.
A senior US defence official said contact had been lost earlier in the day with the two small craft en route from Kuwait to Bahrain.
Another US official said mechanical issues may have disabled one of the boats, leading to a situation in which both ships drifted inadvertently into Iranian waters.
In a statement, Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed it seized the boats and said the sailors were safe and well. It said France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier was near the seized US boats.
They were on board two riverine patrol boats, one of the US officials said. Riverine boats are 11.5m long, high-speed patrol boats used by the US Navy and Marines to patrol rivers and littoral waters.
Republican officials and presidential candidates, who opposed the Iran nuclear accord, used the incident to criticise Obama.
"It's just an indication of where the hell we're going. I mean hopefully they get released and fast," businessman Donald Trump, who leads the Republican field in the race for US president, said at a rally in Iowa. The election is November 8.
The boats can join our drone.
In exchange for how many bags of gold ingots?
I’m not buying mechanical failure.
I’d sooner buy that the Iranians seized them outside their borders and the “drifted” story is just covering for it.
Those boats should be immediately returned to the U.S. fleet. In good condition. Failure to do should be met with force. Iran must Submit to the U.S.. No other result is acceptable. They must SUBMIT !
I immediately assumed that the Iranians would steal the boats. Will come in handy for patrolling disputed waters.
The mullahs are murdering, lying criminals, and our president is pretty much the same thing.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Then they noticed they were carrying 200 cases of beer and 20 cases of Scotch.
They took a little detour, shut the engines and drifted while drinking (DWD in Naval parlance).
When they woke up, they were surrounded by IRG fast boats.
That's the only plausible story. If they were truly Riverine boats, there's no way they would be 50 miles from the beach to transit to Bahrain. And they are not suitable for patrols in open water.
ping to post #8
I think its real clear where those two boats are going.
See...now that passes the smell test...what the Admin is trying to sell us does not.
I have contacts that say there was no engine failure, and that standing orders were not to resist in such a circumstance, avoid a scene and allow diplomatic means to work for them.
Another version of leading from behind.
As I say, how they got into the mess is something again, and your explanation would work...though I would hope they would have more sense than to DWD while in an area where the Iranians are looking for any reason.
...heck, they fired those stupid rockets off the carrier just a few days ago and everyone had to have heard about it.
Pretty sure that at least one report said that both boats were beached on Farsi Island, which is an Iranian military base.
You don’t go to Farsi Island, much less at night.
With the French there...no telling what sort of bone-headed black op Obama was running. It was a bad idea and it went bad for our guys (and...a girl?!).
Good grief.
Precisely what happened to the two US boats remained unclear. ,,,,,,, Reverse engineering of the electrical stuff and weapon systems, along with the marine design.
Correct. Another intelligence coup for Iran -- and 0b0z0 won't do a da*ned thing about them...
DWD is more plausible than anything we are hearing out of Washington or Tehran.
Mr. Obama, send in James Taylor!!
The Swedes would be happy to sell Iran all of these boats they want to buy and would probably engaged a joint production contract as well.
There's no secret technology on them.
But they ARE good boats.
LOL I am not a water person and looking at the pic I would feel safe on it, if there were guys piloting along the outer banks of NC.
Most likely a technological coup for Iran.
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