Leahy on Iran’s Detention of US Sailors: Wouldn’t We Have Held Iranians in Our Waters?
(CNSNews.com) – The senior Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) implied during an exchange with Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday that Iran was justified in detaining ten U.S. sailors who entered Iranian waters last month.
The incident came up during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the administration’s State and foreign operations budget request, after Kerry argued that the nuclear deal and his relationship with his Iranian counterpart had been responsible for the quick resolution of what he said could have turned into a hostage situation [1].
Then Leahy spoke: “If we had an Iranian boat, warship – military – boat or ship, with armed Iranians on it. Say it came along the coast, uh, pick a place within our waters, say South Carolina, and was well within the U.S. borders, perhaps had the engines stopped – but armed Iranians,” he said.
“Would we not at least hold them until we found out what they were doing?”
“Well of course we’d have taken them into custody,” Kerry replied.
“I, you know, I don’t believe under any circumstances we’d have put them on display the way they [the U.S. sailors] were put on display,” he added.
“I understand that, but we would have at least –” Leahy began.
“They clearly would have been taken into custody and we would have dealt with them straightforwardly under any circumstances, I’m convinced of that – upholding all international law and all standards of decency,” Kerry said.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy personnel intercepted and detained the sailors and two small U.S. Navy patrol vessels in the Persian Gulf for around 14 hours on Jan. 12-13, after what U.S. Central Command described as “indications of a mechanical issue” with one of the boats’ engines.
Iranian state media sent images around the world [2] of the sailors, kneeling at gunpoint with hands behind their heads, plus video footage showing one sailor apologizing for inadvertently entering Iranian waters, another apparently in tears, and a female crew member with her head covered by a scarf.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the incident an “act of God” and awarded medals [3] to the men involved.
Leahy, 75, is the most senior Democrat in the Senate, and is running for a record eighth term in November.
Until the Republican Party regained control of the Senate in January 2015, Leahy held the post of president pro tempore, third in line to succeed to the presidency.
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