Washington (CNN)Ten American sailors were being held in Iranian custody after two small U.S. naval craft apparently briefly entered Iranian territorial waters, a U.S. senior defense official said Tuesday.
The official, however, expects the situation to be resolved quickly. A senior administration official said there is nothing to indicate this was anything hostile on the part of any entity in Iran, adding that the U.S. has received high-level assurances that the sailors will be released promptly.
Washington (CNN)Ten American sailors were being held in Iranian custody after two small U.S. naval craft apparently briefly entered Iranian territorial waters, a U.S. senior defense official said Tuesday.
The official, however, expects the situation to be resolved quickly. A senior administration official said there is nothing to indicate this was anything hostile on the part of any entity in Iran, adding that the U.S. has received high-level assurances that the sailors will be released promptly.
"U.S. officials said that the incident happened near Farsi Island in the middle of the Gulf. They said some type of mechanical trouble with one of the boats caused them to drift into Iranian territorial waters near the island, and they were picked up by Iran."
So the Navy is sticking with the "mechanical trouble" story
Pictures are out there, these were actually CB-90s, in the middle of Persian Gulf where they should not be. What where they doing there? USN is in dire need of some FACs or small corvettes, fast.
patrolling such an area with CB-90s is recipe for disaster. unless they were providing force protection for larger vessel against the assymetric IRGC fast-boat navy. Still a big WTF regarding this news.
PS. Seems like IRI is keeping them boats. Just wow PS2.nah false alarm, both boats are under US control
The sailors were later taken ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft, while other sailors took charge of the boats and headed towards Bahrain, their original destination.
Pictures are out there, these were actually CB-90s, in the middle of Persian Gulf where they should not be. What where they doing there? USN is in dire need of some FACs or small corvettes, fast.
patrolling such an area with CB-90s is recipe for disaster. unless they were providing force protection for larger vessel against the assymetric IRGC fast-boat navy. Still a big WTF regarding this news.
PS. Seems like IRI is keeping them boats. Just wow PS2.nah false alarm, both boats are under US control
The sailors were later taken ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft, while other sailors took charge of the boats and headed towards Bahrain, their original destination.
The vessel was supposedly travelling between Kuwait and Bahrain. The shortest distance is about 220 miles between the very south of Kuwait and the very north of Bahrain. The CB-90 has a range of 240 miles. That is not a lot of leeway should something go wrong. The island of Farsi lies a minimum of about 50 miles (80 km) from this route. The sea currents in this part of the Gulf are about 1 km / hour from south west, so the vessel would have to have drifted for about 80 hours to reach Farsi. Farsi itself is only 500 metres across, so that it is remarkable that they reached it by chance assuming the Kuwait - Bahrain story is true.
Alternatively perhaps the CB-90 was investigating other islands in the vicinity. The nearest is about 20 km (15 miles) south west of Farsi - which is the right direction for drift, but still 20 hours drifting away.
The crew was sailing somewhere for some purpose. The enginne breaks down or they run out of fuel. Surely the first thing they would do is call for help. What is the range to the nearest US naval vessel with a helicopter? A few hundred miles? So the helicopter would take a couple of hours to get to them. In the meanwhile they would have drifted a couple of km, hitting Farsi in this case. That means the vessel was in Iranian waters at the time of the engine failure or fuel shortage.
In short it seems the crew entered Iranian territorial waters on purpose, either to test Iranian response or to distract Iran from some other activity.
Pictures are out there, these were actually CB-90s, in the middle of Persian Gulf where they should not be. What where they doing there? USN is in dire need of some FACs or small corvettes, fast.
patrolling such an area with CB-90s is recipe for disaster. unless they were providing force protection for larger vessel against the assymetric IRGC fast-boat navy. Still a big WTF regarding this news.
PS. Seems like IRI is keeping them boats. Just wow PS2.nah false alarm, both boats are under US control
The sailors were later taken ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft, while other sailors took charge of the boats and headed towards Bahrain, their original destination.
The vessel was supposedly travelling between Kuwait and Bahrain. The shortest distance is about 220 miles between the very south of Kuwait and the very north of Bahrain. The CB-90 has a range of 240 miles. That is not a lot of leeway should something go wrong. The island of Farsi lies a minimum of about 50 miles (80 km) from this route. The sea currents in this part of the Gulf are about 1 km / hour from south west, so the vessel would have to have drifted for about 80 hours to reach Farsi. Farsi itself is only 500 metres across, so that it is remarkable that they reached it by chance assuming the Kuwait - Bahrain story is true.
Alternatively perhaps the CB-90 was investigating other islands in the vicinity. The nearest is about 20 km (15 miles) south west of Farsi - which is the right direction for drift, but still 20 hours drifting away.
The crew was sailing somewhere for some purpose. The enginne breaks down or they run out of fuel. Surely the first thing they would do is call for help. What is the range to the nearest US naval vessel with a helicopter? A few hundred miles? So the helicopter would take a couple of hours to get to them. In the meanwhile they would have drifted a couple of km, hitting Farsi in this case. That means the vessel was in Iranian waters at the time of the engine failure or fuel shortage.
In short it seems the crew entered Iranian territorial waters on purpose, either to test Iranian response or to distract Iran from some other activity.
Be that as it may, I don't rule out the crew making a huge mistake while escorting a larger vessel. Iranians gave them back swiftly with no problems compared to the RN folks back 07.
Pictures are out there, these were actually CB-90s, in the middle of Persian Gulf where they should not be. What where they doing there? USN is in dire need of some FACs or small corvettes, fast.
patrolling such an area with CB-90s is recipe for disaster. unless they were providing force protection for larger vessel against the assymetric IRGC fast-boat navy. Still a big WTF regarding this news.
PS. Seems like IRI is keeping them boats. Just wow PS2.nah false alarm, both boats are under US control
The sailors were later taken ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft, while other sailors took charge of the boats and headed towards Bahrain, their original destination.
The vessel was supposedly travelling between Kuwait and Bahrain. The shortest distance is about 220 miles between the very south of Kuwait and the very north of Bahrain. The CB-90 has a range of 240 miles. That is not a lot of leeway should something go wrong. The island of Farsi lies a minimum of about 50 miles (80 km) from this route. The sea currents in this part of the Gulf are about 1 km / hour from south west, so the vessel would have to have drifted for about 80 hours to reach Farsi. Farsi itself is only 500 metres across, so that it is remarkable that they reached it by chance assuming the Kuwait - Bahrain story is true.
Alternatively perhaps the CB-90 was investigating other islands in the vicinity. The nearest is about 20 km (15 miles) south west of Farsi - which is the right direction for drift, but still 20 hours drifting away.
The crew was sailing somewhere for some purpose. The enginne breaks down or they run out of fuel. Surely the first thing they would do is call for help. What is the range to the nearest US naval vessel with a helicopter? A few hundred miles? So the helicopter would take a couple of hours to get to them. In the meanwhile they would have drifted a couple of km, hitting Farsi in this case. That means the vessel was in Iranian waters at the time of the engine failure or fuel shortage.
In short it seems the crew entered Iranian territorial waters on purpose, either to test Iranian response or to distract Iran from some other activity.
Be that as it may, I don't rule out the crew making a huge mistake while escorting a larger vessel. Iranians gave them back swiftly with no problems compared to the RN folks back 07.
A while ago, I mentioned the superficially funny story of a Hellfire ending up in Cuba. People here rightly stated it was of little interest to Russia, other than for insights on how US manufatures stuff and possibl ids of sub-contractors. This is in total contrast to the US MoD feigned fear of Russia learning US top secrets. The bs factor - the incident supposedly happened in mid 2014 and yet it is being reported now?
short_fuze wrote:A while ago, I mentioned the superficially funny story of a Hellfire ending up in Cuba. People here rightly stated it was of little interest to Russia, other than for insights on how US manufatures stuff and possibl ids of sub-contractors. This is in total contrast to the US MoD feigned fear of Russia learning US top secrets. The bs factor - the incident supposedly happened in mid 2014 and yet it is being reported now?
Well Russia has already copied the CB-90 Although IRI could learn a thing or two from the weapons loadout, both on the boat as well as personal. As I noticed in Iranian pics, the boats were stripped of all weaponry. So chances are for 10-15 hours they were being investigated by IRGC.
Pictures are out there, these were actually CB-90s, in the middle of Persian Gulf where they should not be. What where they doing there? USN is in dire need of some FACs or small corvettes, fast.
patrolling such an area with CB-90s is recipe for disaster. unless they were providing force protection for larger vessel against the assymetric IRGC fast-boat navy. Still a big WTF regarding this news.
PS. Seems like IRI is keeping them boats. Just wow PS2.nah false alarm, both boats are under US control
The sailors were later taken ashore by U.S. Navy aircraft, while other sailors took charge of the boats and headed towards Bahrain, their original destination.
The vessel was supposedly travelling between Kuwait and Bahrain. The shortest distance is about 220 miles between the very south of Kuwait and the very north of Bahrain. The CB-90 has a range of 240 miles. That is not a lot of leeway should something go wrong. The island of Farsi lies a minimum of about 50 miles (80 km) from this route. The sea currents in this part of the Gulf are about 1 km / hour from south west, so the vessel would have to have drifted for about 80 hours to reach Farsi. Farsi itself is only 500 metres across, so that it is remarkable that they reached it by chance assuming the Kuwait - Bahrain story is true.
Alternatively perhaps the CB-90 was investigating other islands in the vicinity. The nearest is about 20 km (15 miles) south west of Farsi - which is the right direction for drift, but still 20 hours drifting away.
The crew was sailing somewhere for some purpose. The enginne breaks down or they run out of fuel. Surely the first thing they would do is call for help. What is the range to the nearest US naval vessel with a helicopter? A few hundred miles? So the helicopter would take a couple of hours to get to them. In the meanwhile they would have drifted a couple of km, hitting Farsi in this case. That means the vessel was in Iranian waters at the time of the engine failure or fuel shortage.
In short it seems the crew entered Iranian territorial waters on purpose, either to test Iranian response or to distract Iran from some other activity.
Be that as it may, I don't rule out the crew making a huge mistake while escorting a larger vessel. Iranians gave them back swiftly with no problems compared to the RN folks back 07.
Here is a summary of the duties of the Riverine Groups
"It will be broken up into two groups. Coastal Riverine Group 1 will be based at Imperial Beach, Calif., with a squadron at the Naval Amphibious Base in San Diego. Coastal Riverine Group 2 will have its headquarters in Portsmouth, Va., with additional squadrons in Bahrain, Rhode Island and Florida.
Each squadron will feature a headquarters element and four distinct companies, three of which will handle security operations, to include protecting ships and shore facilities, carrying out search-and seizure-operations and providing security for aircraft.
The fourth, Delta company, will specialize in traditional Riverine duties, such as insertions and extractions, boardings on rivers and other inland waters, intelligence collection and more offensive combat operations, said Capt. James Hamblet, Coastal Riverine Group 2’s commander"
from RS22373.pdf at https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec
These Riverine Group 2 vessels were not protecting ships or shore facilities, nor were they carrying out search- and seizure-operations or providing security for aircraft.
KiloGolf wrote:Iranians gave them back swiftly with no problems compared to the RN folks back 07.
This time, as expected, apparently there was a prisoner exchange.
I think it's obvious that this was in fact a blatant provocation, to go with all the other provocations that have been done repeatedly to deteriorate relations with Iran.
Previous RN or even US sailors IIRC were actually just that and possibly not even in Iranian waters.
Therefore Iran made a lot of noise about it as a political tool. Because it was a safe issue...
Those guys were obviously out there doing something that neither Tehran nor Washington want people to know about, hence the sweeping under the rug ASAP.
It's all fun and games to accuse people of "spying/sabotaging" when they're aren't... it's another when you catch some actual spies/saboteurs/SF.
One is a political game the other is an act of war.
Good thing Iran settled this affair promptly and reasonably. Would definitely not have been the right time for Iran to go around busting balls, especially the US's.
Compare the above to how Turkey and their folks treated the Su-24 pilot, they killed him while he was on parachute , then dragged, knifed and butchered his body on-camera and then they uploaded it on youtube; gloating, jumping and shouting like retarded animals. And Turkey did not apologize
PS. few weeks later Brussels sent them a 3 bln euro check (...)
Maybe Iranians spoofed their GPS kit ? Jamming GPS signals is relatively easy. Even Iran could have that capability. This is a Russian R-330ZH "Zhitel" satellite jammer. It can disrupt GPS signals as well as Iridium, etc.
Compare the above to how Turkey and their folks treated the Su-24 pilot, they killed him while he was on parachute , then dragged, knifed and butchered his body on-camera and then they uploaded it on youtube; gloating, jumping and shouting like retarded animals. And Turkey did not apologize
PS. few weeks later Brussels sent them a 3 bln euro check (...)
Not comparable, the Su-24 pilot was bombing the same folks that later killed him, and it wasn't the Turkish military that did all that, just their pet Islamists in Latakia.
flamming_python wrote:Not comparable, the Su-24 pilot was bombing the same folks that later killed him, and it wasn't the Turkish military that did all that, just their pet Islamists in Latakia.
Same thing, handling alleged breach of sovereignty.
The Su-24 pilot was bombing Syrian insurgents in Syria under openly declared, invited mission and deployment, but was shot down with no warning (attempted murder) by Turkish military aircraft while flying over Syria, then murdered by Turkish citizens while parachuting in and over Syria. At all stages him and his body was handled by Turkish authorities, services and secondarily their state-sponsored proxies.
They recorded videos as they were desecrating his body, held him dead for days in Turkey without giving out any news and demanded Russia to apologize. They tried to involve NATO but failed too. Finally when they failed, they staged a propaganda photo op with his body loaded on a TuAF CN-235 (which sealed the deal on how they were responsible all they way).
Compare this to how Iran handled things and voilà.
PS. I'm not a fan of the mullahs but in handling such issues Turkey is at the Middle Ages, Iran is more of a post-Stalin USSR.
This was probably a failed intelligence mission. In these situations, resistance is not the main obligation of the crew, the destruction of sensitive equipment is. So, we will never know how well they behaved, because the details will only be revealed in secret debriefing sessions.
Following the Iranians taking (a copy of) the vessels' GPS data, the US DOD has changed its story. The vessels did not break down and were not lost.
The US vessels were intenionally and knowingly in Iranian territorial waters.
Article 25 of the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, titled “Rights of protection of the coastal State,” states that “the coastal State may take the necessary steps in its territorial sea to prevent passage which is not innocent.”
KiloGolf wrote:Iranians gave them back swiftly with no problems compared to the RN folks back 07.
This time, as expected, apparently there was a prisoner exchange.
I think it's obvious that this was in fact a blatant provocation, to go with all the other provocations that have been done repeatedly to deteriorate relations with Iran.
I meant that apparently these American prisoners were exchanged with Iranian prisoners that were being held by US. At least there are lots of signs (+ other ...) of this having happened. There are other more interesting conjectures behind this potential prisoner exchange scenario.
Additionally to my post above, it seems that the prisoner exchange is continuing and apparently Iran has further released 4 dual-citizenship prisoners.
"Iran will buy 114 civilian aircraft from Airbus Group SE after the removal of sanctions on the country, Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi told state media on Saturday. Tehran has for months signaled it buy aircraft after implementation of last year’s landmark nuclear deal between it and six world powers. Later Saturday, the U.N. atomic agency said the country had indeed completed all steps needed to implement last July’s nuclear deal, triggering a process that would lead within hours to relief from years of tight international sanctions.
Iran had agreed to scale back its nuclear development activities under that deal with six world powers, in exchange for the easing of international sanctions that have crippled its economy. Iran’s airlines have been targeted by sanctions for decades, contributing to poor maintenance of their aging 140-plane fleet, though in recent months the U.S. has permitted the sale of some aircraft parts and training documents. The European Union, citing safety concerns, had also imposed limits on Iranian planes landing within its borders. The purchase of Airbus planes would be the first step in a renovation of national carrier Iran Air, Mr. Akhoundi told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, more than tripling the size of its fleet.
Airbus on Saturday said that once sanctions are eased, it could enter into business with Iranian airlines in compliance with all international laws. It wouldn’t address whether it was negotiating with Iran about potentially striking a deal, citing its policy not to discuss talks with existing or potentially new customers.Mr. Akhoundi promised to invest more than $20 billion in new planes in the next decade during a visit to the Paris Air Show last year. In April, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization had said the country would need up to 500 new planes in that period.
But many of the most-popular Airbus jet models are sold out years in advance, and if Iran has placed an order, it may have to wait some time to receive its planes."
So i assume it would be mostly Airbus A320 Neo family. This also might mean Russians wont be able to sell many liners on Iranian market...if any... nautrally if this contract ever comes to reality.
Militarov wrote:"Iran will buy 114 civilian aircraft from Airbus Group SE after the removal of sanctions on the country, Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi told state media on Saturday. Tehran has for months signaled it buy aircraft after implementation of last year’s landmark nuclear deal between it and six world powers. Later Saturday, the U.N. atomic agency said the country had indeed completed all steps needed to implement last July’s nuclear deal, triggering a process that would lead within hours to relief from years of tight international sanctions.
Iran had agreed to scale back its nuclear development activities under that deal with six world powers, in exchange for the easing of international sanctions that have crippled its economy. Iran’s airlines have been targeted by sanctions for decades, contributing to poor maintenance of their aging 140-plane fleet, though in recent months the U.S. has permitted the sale of some aircraft parts and training documents. The European Union, citing safety concerns, had also imposed limits on Iranian planes landing within its borders. The purchase of Airbus planes would be the first step in a renovation of national carrier Iran Air, Mr. Akhoundi told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency, more than tripling the size of its fleet.
Airbus on Saturday said that once sanctions are eased, it could enter into business with Iranian airlines in compliance with all international laws. It wouldn’t address whether it was negotiating with Iran about potentially striking a deal, citing its policy not to discuss talks with existing or potentially new customers.Mr. Akhoundi promised to invest more than $20 billion in new planes in the next decade during a visit to the Paris Air Show last year. In April, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization had said the country would need up to 500 new planes in that period.
But many of the most-popular Airbus jet models are sold out years in advance, and if Iran has placed an order, it may have to wait some time to receive its planes."
So i assume it would be mostly Airbus A320 Neo family. This also might mean Russians wont be able to sell many liners on Iranian market...if any... nautrally if this contract ever comes to reality.
Sanctions have been lifted by both EU and usa. Well Russian ssj can't compete against airbus and boeing.
Iranian Banks Able to Reconnect to SWIFT Due to Sanctions Relief
Iranian banks received the opportunity to reconnect to SWIFT international payment system amid substantial relief of international sanctions imposed on Tehran in response to its nuclear program, SWIFT said in a statement.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran's compliance with the agreement on country's nuclear program and implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) came into effect. Soon after that, the regime of sanctions imposed on Tehran has been substantially weakened.
"Those banks that are delisted by the Implementing Regulation will now automatically be able to reconnect to SWIFT, following the completion of our normal connection process (i.e. administrative and systems checks, connectivity and technical arrangements)," the statement said on Sunday.
The statement added that because not all the restrictions imposed on the Iraninan banks were lifted, SWIFT remained prohibited from providing specialized financial messaging services to the EU-sanctioned Iranian banks that remained listed under EU Regulation.
On July 14, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries comprising the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany, signed the JCPOA. The agreement guarantees the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief of sanctions, including the EU nuclear-related financial messaging restrictions.
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