TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s release of 10 U.S. Navy sailors on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after they were detained on the Persian Gulf, is being hailed in both countries as a sign that their relations have evolved since the signing of the nuclear accord last summer.
Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the Iranians “for their cooperation in swiftly resolving this matter” and suggested in a statement that the quick resolution of the issue was a product of the nearly daily back-and-forth that now takes place between Washington and Tehran, after three decades of hostility and stony silence.
In an appearance later Wednesday at the National Defense University in Washington, Kerry said that his focus on diplomacy with a country “we hadn’t talked to for 35 years” before the nuclear negotiations had paid off.
The crew members of two patrol boats were detained Tuesday after what Iranian state news media described as “trespassing” in Iranian waters near a major naval base. The Pentagon and the State Department initially said that one of the boats had experienced mechanical problems en route to Bahrain from Kuwait in a routine mission Tuesday and that the Iranians appeared to have accepted the explanation.
On Wednesday, however, after the crew members and boats were returned, defense officials said they no longer believed that mechanical problems were the cause, noting that both boats returned to U.S. custody under their own power.
Defense officials said that they were still trying to untangle the chain of events that led to the episode. Of particular note, they said, was the question of how the military lost contact with not one, but two boats.
Several officials noted that the crew members were relatively young, junior enlisted sailors.
For now, questions about the incident itself seemed secondary to how it was resolved. While the countries still have a long way to go before normalizing relations, analysts say the less charged atmosphere is a reflection of changing priorities in Tehran and Washington.
“The top leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not looking for any tension with America,” said Nader Karimi Joni, a journalist aligned with Iran’s reformists who once served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he added, the “whole system sought tension.”
