Sri Lanka starts to offload 208 crew members from a second Iranian vessel off its coast, a day after 87 people were killed and several others were still missing after a U.S. submarine strike on an Iranian warship in the same region.
“After detailed discussions with all parties, Sri Lanka has decided to assist the Iranian vessel,” Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake tells a press briefing in Colombo.
The crew being offloaded included 53 officials, 84 cadets, 48 senior sailors and 23 sailors, Dissanayake says. Some crew members would remain on board to help the Sri Lankan Navy navigate the vessel to Trincomalee Port in the eastern part of the island, he adds.
The ship was near the port of Colombo, in the country’s exclusive economic zone but outside its maritime boundary, Dissanayake says.
“We worked on the stance that this is our humanitarian responsibility,” he tells the briefing.
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