Sri Lanka brings 40 Iranian sailors ashore from sanctioned tankers for treatment
Sailors from US-sanctioned oil tankers off Sri Lanka were treated in Colombo before flying home, the foreign ministry says.
Around 40 Iranian sailors were taken off oil tankers moored near Sri Lanka on Saturday and given medical care on shore, the country's foreign ministry said. The Hindu and The Straits Times both reported that the men were gone from Sri Lanka within a few hours.
Thushara Rodrigo, a spokesman for the ministry, said the Iranian embassy had asked for help through diplomatic channels. The crew members were facing medical emergencies, he said, without giving details. The Straits Times carried his comments in a Reuters report.
The outlets described the ships differently. According to The Hindu, they were oil tankers under US sanctions, lying at anchor just beyond the edge of Sri Lankan territorial waters. The Straits Times called them commercial vessels in international waters and said the sailors had come from 19 of them.
Sri Lankan authorities moved the group ashore at the port of Galle in the Southern Province. "We coordinated the transfer alone as per our humanitarian obligations," Rodrigo told The Hindu, adding that Iran's embassy had paid for everything. Reuters quoted a government source familiar firsthand with the rescue as saying Sri Lanka's navy and coastguard generally help out in humanitarian operations.
The Straits Times noted that the United States is at war with Iran and has blockaded Iranian shipping. The Hindu said the transfer took place a month after The Wall Street Journal reported that pressure from US sanctions had left the Iranian ships stuck in Sri Lankan waters. Colombo said then that it would give the sanctioned tankers no help, and the foreign ministry described the secondary sanctions as one part of a wider order from Washington that was not aimed at Sri Lanka in particular. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath rejected reports that the US was leaning on Sri Lanka. He said the government's choices were made "strictly protecting the country's sovereignty", though it stood ready to step in on humanitarian grounds.
Sri Lanka has handled Iranian casualties before. Earlier this year a torpedo fired by a US submarine sank the frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean off the island's south coast. The Straits Times dated the attack to March 4, and The Hindu said it killed at least 84 people. The Sri Lankan navy evacuated wounded crew, who were then cared for at a state hospital in Galle district.
The Straits Times reported that the remains of upwards of 80 sailors killed in the sinking were sent home to Iran by air in the middle of March. In April, 32 people who survived it went back to Iran, together with 208 sailors from a different ship.
The two outlets gave slightly different times for this weekend's departure. A senior official at Iran's embassy in Colombo told The Hindu the sailors were moved from Galle to Colombo for treatment and had left the country by Saturday night. The Straits Times quoted Rodrigo as saying they were treated and then went home to Iran in the early hours of Sunday.
Sources: The Hindu, Stranded Iranian sailors receive urgent medical assistance in Sri Lanka; The Straits Times, Sri Lanka rescues 40 Iranian sailors, spokesman says.
