U.S. Pressures Sri Lanka Not to Repatriate Iranian Sailors

Darwin, 07 March:

The United States is pressuring the Sri Lankan government not to send Iranian sailors back to Iran after an Iranian warship was sunk in the Indian Ocean. The request concerns both the surviving crew members of the sunken vessel and the crew of another Iranian ship currently in Sri Lankan custody.

This information was revealed in an internal U.S. State Department cable obtained by the news agency Reuters on Friday.

On Wednesday, a U.S. submarine launched a torpedo attack in the Indian Ocean that sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena. The attack occurred about 19 nautical miles off the southern Sri Lankan port city of Galle. Many Iranian sailors were reportedly killed in the incident.

The strike is being seen as a major escalation in Washington’s operations against the Iranian navy.

A day later, on Thursday, Sri Lankan authorities began disembarking 208 crew members from another Iranian vessel, the Iranian naval support ship IRIS Bushehr. The ship had been stranded within Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) but outside its territorial waters.

Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said providing shelter to the crew was a “humanitarian responsibility” for his country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described the attack as a “silent death.” According to the report, it was the first time since World War II that the United States had sunk a foreign warship with a torpedo strike.

Analysts believe the incident signals a potential expansion of the geographical scope of the conflict involving Iran.

The U.S. diplomatic cable dated March 6 stated that Jane Howell, the Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Colombo, strongly urged the Sri Lankan government not to return either the crew of the Bushehr or the 32 surviving sailors from the Dena to Iran.

The cable also said Sri Lankan authorities should limit any potential propaganda efforts by Iran that could involve the detained sailors.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Similarly, there was no immediate reaction from the office of President Dissanayake or Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry.

The cable also noted that Howell informed the Israeli ambassador responsible for India and Sri Lanka that there were no plans to repatriate the crews to Iran.

During the discussion, the Israeli envoy reportedly asked whether there had been any attempts to encourage defections among the sailors.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Health and Media Hansaka Wijemuni told Reuters on Wednesday that Tehran had asked Colombo for assistance in repatriating the bodies of sailors killed aboard the Dena. However, the timeline for this process has not yet been determined.

Last month, the IRIS Dena participated in a naval exercise organized by India in the Bay of Bengal. The vessel was attacked by the U.S. submarine while returning to Iran.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the Dena was armed at the time of the attack, and the United States did not issue any warning beforehand.

The State Department cable also said that the second vessel, Bushehr, will remain under Sri Lankan custody until the conflict subsides.

On Friday, Sri Lankan authorities said the Bushehr was being moved to a port on the country’s eastern coast, and most of its crew members were being transferred to a naval base near Colombo.