Sri Lanka has used the fragile cease-fire between the United States and Iran to repatriate more than 200 Iranian sailors who came into its custody last month after a U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship near its waters.
The cease-fire allowed the island nation to fulfill its obligations under international law without giving up its neutrality or jeopardizing its friendly ties with the warring parties, Vijitha Herath, Sri Lanka’s minister of foreign affairs, said in response to questions from The New York Times.
Their release resolves a diplomatic standoff for Sri Lanka with Iran and eases the island nation out of a war into which it was dragged unwillingly. The Iranian Navy personnel had been stuck in Sri Lankan custody since early March, as Sri Lanka’s government rebuffed requests from Iran to repatriate them, worried that doing so would affect its neutrality in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
Sri Lanka has stated several times that it was a neutral party with obligations only to international laws it is a signatory to. One of those laws, the Third Geneva Convention, states that prisoners of war are to be released immediately during a “cessation of active hostilities.”
Repatriating the sailors during the cease-fire period does not affect “our neutral stance” on the war, Mr. Herath said.
The sailors were sent back to Iran via Turkey by plane late on Tuesday, Aruna Jayasekara, Sri Lanka’s deputy defense minister, said earlier Thursday.
Among those who headed home this week were 32 survivors from the Dena, the Iranian warship that was destroyed in a U.S. attack that killed more than 100 Iranians, of which 84 bodies had already been recovered and repatriated.
The return flight on Tuesday also included 206 navy personnel from the Bushehr, another Iranian vessel that sought shelter in Sri Lankan waters after the Dena was attacked.
The Bushehr remains docked in Trincomalee, a port in northern Sri Lanka, with 15 sailors on board to manage safety protocols. The timing of its release will be decided by Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry in keeping with international law, a government official said.
Sri Lanka had initially hesitated to let the Bushehr into its waters, but has said it relented after the vessel reported engine trouble. Sailors from both vessels were given 30-day Sri Lankan visas in early March on humanitarian grounds and accommodated in military facilities near Colombo, the capital. Both Iranian and Sri Lankan officials said at the time that the sailors were housed comfortably, but were also under surveillance.
Diplomats from the Iranian Embassy in Colombo held daily talks with government officials about the fate of the sailors. Iran pushed for their release, considering it a bilateral issue between two friendly nations that had nothing to do with the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, Alireza Delkhosh, Iran’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, told The New York Times last month.
Sri Lankan officials initially disagreed with that approach as they studied their obligations under international maritime agreements the country had signed. The small country of 22 million, located off the coast of India, was determined to remain a neutral party in the war, which meant it had to tread carefully to maintain good relations with both Iran and the United States
In March, The Times reported that the United States had sought permission from the Sri Lankan government to land and park two military aircraft loaded with arms and ammunition just before the war on Iran started, but Sri Lanka declined to give permission, citing its neutrality.
Anupreeta Das covers India and South Asia for The Times. She is based in New Delhi.
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