US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he was “frustrated and angry” at an Iranian video showing 10 detained US Navy sailors, as the American military described how the nine men and one woman were surrounded by machine gun-toting Iranian personnel.
His comments come a day after the two countries hailed the implementation of Tehran’s nuclear deal, with President Barack Obama saying the breakthrough was vindication of his contentious policy of engagement with Iran.
However, underlining the lingering deep suspicions between the two sides, Iran seized 10 sailors last week in the Gulf after their boats strayed into Iranian waters and held them overnight.
They were freed on Wednesday after Iran accepted they entered by mistake.
Video footage showed the US Navy personnel kneeling with their hands behind their heads as they were apprehended, something Kerry made clear he was deeply unhappy about.
“I was very angry. I was very frustrated and angry that that was released,” Kerry told CNN, saying the footage was released by the Iranian military or Revolutionary Guards, not the government.
“But I am not excusing it, there was no excuse for it. Our sailors regretably, and inadvertently, went into Iranian waters.”
The strongly worded remarks came as the US military released its first detailed account of the incident, which threatened to spark a renewed crisis between Tehran and Washington.
US Secretary of State John Kerry who is meek as a lamb before the Israeli leaders and pockets utmost humiliation without showing the least bit of annoyance is very angry and frustrated with Iran, and is saying so openly.
And the cause of his anger and frustration is the showing of a video of US Navy personnel kneeling with their hands behind their heads as they were apprehended. The US military was also angry over the fact that apprehended Navy officials, who had trespassed into Iranian waters, had been surrounded by gun-totting Iranians. I suppose the US expected the Iranian officials to give a warm welcome, including offering bouquets, to the soldiers of the super power American, who chose to grace the Iranian waters by entering it, even if illegally.
Of course, since the Navy officials entered the Iranian waters illegally, the Iranian authorities were within their rights to apprehend them and to investigate the matter.
And the fact that the US soldiers were released the next day, after Iranian officials investigated the matter and found the entry to be an inadvertent one, clearly shows that the Iranians behaved responsibly. Now this is great contrast to the American practice of apprehending and keeping people for years in Guantanamo Bay prison, in sub-human conditions, some without the slightest of evidence against them.
Karachi
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