Sri Lanka to treat rescued Iranian sailors under ‘international law’
Sri Lanka is taking care of 32 sailors from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena under Colombo’s international treaty obligations, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told a conference in New Delhi.
The frigate was sunk by a US submarine on Wednesday just off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka sent its navy to rescue survivors and recover 84 bodies.
Herath did not directly respond to a question about whether Colombo was under pressure from the United States not to repatriate the Iranians.
“We have taken all steps in accordance with international laws,” Herath said.
Sri Lanka also provided safe haven to a second Iranian warship, IRIS Bushehr, and evacuated its 219 crew a day after Dena was torpedoed. The ship was taken to Trincomalee on Sri Lanka’s northeast coast after reports of engine problems.
Meanwhile, India said on Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock at one of its ports on “humanitarian” grounds after it too reported operational problems.
The three ships were part of a multinational fleet review conducted by India before the war in the Middle East began last Saturday.
“I think this is the humane thing to do and I think we are guided by this principle,” Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishkar said. he said.
Lavan docked in the southwestern Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“Most of the people on board were young students. They have disembarked and are at a nearby facility,” Jaishkar said.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said this week that Colombo would comply with the Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a belligerent state until hostilities end.
A senior administration official said Colombo was meeting with the International Committee of the Red Cross to care for survivors of the torpedoed ship.
International humanitarian law applies to Dena survivors and the injured can be repatriated at their request, an official said.
Iranian diplomats in Colombo said they wanted the remains of 84 sailors killed in the US strike to be returned to Iran.
