The United States is pressing Sri Lanka’s government not to repatriate the survivors from the Iranian warship it sank this week, as well as the crew of a second Iranian ship that is in Sri Lankan custody, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters.
A US submarine sank the Iris Dena warship in the Indian Ocean about 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southern port city of Galle on Wednesday, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening Washington’s pursuit of the Iranian navy.
On Thursday, Sri Lanka began offloading 208 crew members from a second Iranian ship, the naval auxiliary vessel Iris Booshehr, which had found itself stranded in Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone but outside its maritime boundary.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said his island nation had a “humanitarian responsibility” to take in the crew.
The torpedoing of the Dena –which US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as “quiet death” – was the first such action by the United States since World War Two and a clear sign of the Iran conflict’s widening geographic scope.
The internal State Department cable, which was dated March 6 and has not been previously reported, said Jayne Howell, the charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Colombo, had emphasised to Sri Lanka’s government that neither the Booshehr crew nor the 32 Dena survivors should be repatriated to Iran.
It said “Sri Lankan authorities should minimise Iranian attempts to use the detainees for propaganda”.
On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s deputy minister for health and mass media, Hansaka Wijemuni, said Teheran had asked Colombo for help repatriating the bodies of those killed aboard the Dena, but a timeframe to do so has not yet been determined.
The Dena had taken part in naval exercises organised by India in the Bay of Bengal last month and was returning to Iran when it was struck by a US torpedo.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dena was armed when it was hit and the United States did not warn before carrying out the strike.
The State Department cable said the Booshehr will remain in Sri Lankan custody for the duration of the conflict.
Sri Lankan authorities said on Friday that they were escorting the Booshehr to a harbour on the eastern coast and moving most of its crew to a navy camp near Colombo. — Reuters
