The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Tuesday captured 10 US Navy sailors inside Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, but released them on Wednesday following an apology and after technical and operational investigations indicated that the intrusion into Iranian territorial waters was “unintentional”.
Speaking in a televised interview on Wednesday night, Rezaei said the sailors behaved rationally, but the aircraft backing up the boats made provocative moves to intimidate Iranian forces.
The jet pilots, however, stopped their dangerous moves after they were seriously warned by the IRGC Navy, he added.
Rezaei, a former IRGC commander, further urged the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to pursue the issue so that the Americans would not repeat such dangerous moves.
If the US navy vessels intended to attack Iran’s Farsi Island, the country would have reacted differently, he noted.
“The IRGC captured one of the world’s most modern boats belonging to the world’s most modern army,” he added, stressing that it sent the message to certain countries “not to play with fire.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the IRGC Navy commander had also noted that any “unprofessional” action by the US forces after Iran’s capturing of two intruding military vessels could have led to a “catastrophe”.
The US and French aircraft carriers present in the Persian Gulf were within the target range of the IRGC rockets on Tuesday, when Iranian naval forces captured two US military vessels that had entered the country’s territorial waters, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said on Wednesday.
He said any unprofessional action by them could have caused a catastrophe.
According to the IRGC, the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier had been drifting out southeast of the island in the international waters when the Iranian forces seized the two boats, while the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle had been also patrolling in the international waters northeast of the island at the time of the seizure.