Iran releases detained US Navy sailors

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday released 10 US sailors and their patrol boats detained a day earlier after investigations showed they had entered Iranian waters unintentionally, a statement said Wednesday.

"It was determined that the detained American Marines did not enter Iranian waters intentionally. Following their apology, they have been released to international waters in the Gulf," state television quoted a Guards' statement as saying.

The US Navy said in a statement that the 10 personnel had been "safely returned to US custody" and there was no indication that any of them had been harmed during their detention.

"The Navy will investigate the circumstances that led to the sailors' presence in Iran," the statement said.

A US military spokesperson told CNN that the nine men and one woman had been escorted by Iranian boats to a rendezvous point in international waters from where they were transferred to the USS Anzio warship.

They were then transported ashore via aircraft for medical checks, with other sailors taking charge of the vessels and continuing towards Bahrain.

Sephanews.com, the Revolutionary Guards' website, on Wednesday published photos of the sailors as well as of their vessels.

The images showed the group sitting together in a room on Persian rugs, with the one female sailor wearing a headscarf.

Admiral Ali Fadavi, the naval commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, told state television that Iran had concluded that "this trespassing was not hostile or for spying purposes" and that the sailors had been in Iranian territory "due to a broken navigation system".

US officials had earlier said one or both of the boats had suffered mechanical problems and been taken to Farsi Island, which lies roughly midway between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Gulf and houses a base of the Revolutionary Guards, which has its own naval units.

Radio contact was lost with the two vessels, which US officials said were small patrol boats, while they were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain.

“We subsequently have been in communication with Iranian authorities, who have informed us of the safety and well-being of our personnel,” a senior defence official told reporters.

American officials did not dispute that the vessels appeared to have been in Iranian territorial waters when they were intercepted.

The incident in the Gulf came just days away from the expected final implementation of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers led by the US, an accord that will see sanctions on Tehran lifted.

The swift resolution of the incident appeared indicative of improved relations between Washington and Tehran, with John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, quickly calling Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, with whom he worked for months to negotiate the nuclear deal.

"I want to express my gratitude to Iranian authorities for their cooperation ‎in swiftly resolving this matter," Kerry said in a statement.

"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."

Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic relations, but Kerry called Zarif five times about the issue on Tuesday.

Kerry told him the sailors' release could be turned into a "good story" for both sides, according to a senior US official.

Zarif said on Twitter: "Happy to see dialog and respect, not threats and impetuousness, swiftly resolved the #sailors episode. Let's learn from this latest example."

His tweet seemed a barb aimed at US lawmakers who had quickly jumped on the incident as an example of Iranian hostility.

The incident was in stark contrast with Iran's capture and detention of 15 British Royal Navy sailors in disputed waters between Iran and Iraq in 2007.

Some of the sailors said they were subjected to threats, blindfolded, roughly treated and held in solitary captivity during their 13-day detention. 

Their eventual release was orchestrated for the media with then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announcing that he had pardoned them as a "gift to the British people".

Iranian state television also showed images of several of the sailors meeting Ahmadinejad and thanking him for their release before they were dispatched home with bags of Iran-themed souvenirs including pistachio nuts, handicrafts and CDS.