Earlier today two small US Naval vessels were stopped by the Iranians near Farsi Island. Apparently one of the two craft had experienced mechanical difficulties. The Iranians fairly quickly let it be known that the Sailors would be released to go back on their way in short order. Secretary of State Kerry immediately made contact with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to deal with this. Zarif, reportedly, indicated they would be released immediately and that is expected to be some time today.
The Sailors, five per Riverine type of craft, were on a brown water training mission between Kuwait and Bahrain. It is unclear if they drifted into Iranian territorial waters, but given the narrowness of the waterway where they were training, it is possible. At this point everything seems to be working the way it is supposed to. Vessels were in distress, there was a response by one of the state’s in the area, everyone recognizes that there was no intentional incursion, and the Sailors are supposed to be back underway shortly. Provided this is how it actually plays out, then there’s really no major issues here.
Except for whatever hay can be made in the news media and political sphere. I was at the gym when I saw CNN on one of the overhead TVs breaking this story and interviewing members of Congress about it. Since I actually watch cartoons on my iPad while doing cardio, I checked the BBC news site to see what was actually going on. At that point the Beeb’s coverage was a one paragraph run down that the one of the two craft had mechanical problems, the Iranians had responded, the Sailors had been brought to Farsi Island, and the Iranians had announced they’d be back underway later today. So we’ll have to see how this gets spun by both the news media and politicians as we head into the State of the Union tonight. So far even Fox News, at least on their website, is playing this as straight reporting.