Iranian state TV released a video Wednesday of a U.S. sailor apologizing for crossing into the country's territorial waters. The apology was publicized hours after Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. did not apologize.
"It was a mistake, it was our fault, and we apologize for our mistake," the unnamed sailor said while being held in Iranian custody.
The sailor and nine others were released Wednesday after being held overnight in Iran. Units of the Revolutionary Guard seized two U.S. Navy boats on Tuesday in a stretch of the Persian Gulf after one boat suffered a mechnical problem. U.S. officials have not said if the boats entered Iranian waters.
After Iran said the U.S. apologized, Biden said that it did not happen.
"There was nothing to apologize for," Biden told CBS News. "When you have a problem with the boat you apologize the boat had a problem? No, and there was no looking for any apology. This was just standard nautical practice."
Prior to broadcasting the sailor's apology, Secretary of State John Kerry thanked Iran.
“I want to thank the Iranian authorities for their cooperation and quick response. These are always situations which everybody here knows have an ability, if not properly guided, to get out of control."
Republican congressman Duncan Hunter criticized the Obama administration's "apologetic foreign policy."
"Iranians are going to use this for massive propaganda," Hunter told The Daily Beast. "This is a state sponsor of terror that has been sanctioned by the entire Western world. There are now going to run commercials on their TV of sailors apologizing. There is no way that they should apologize."
Hunter also said that the U.S. military would have to change its "tactics, techniques and procedures" due to information Iranians now possess.
Read it at The New York Times
