White House says open lines with Iran were key to release

The White House says new lines of communication with Iran established during nuclear negotiations were key to getting 10 US Navy sailors released quickly.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough says he’s hesitant to draw big lessons from the incident about the state of US-Iran relations.

But he says open lines established recently are “extraordinarily important” in resolving situations such as the one in the crowded Persian Gulf. He says US Secretary of State John Kerry’s relationship with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif played a key role in this case.

Kerry and Zarif grew acquainted through the recent nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers. But President Barack Obama and Kerry have said the nuclear deal was separate from other issues between the US and Iran.

McDonough tells a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Wednesday the White House is very pleased to have the sailors “back with us.” He says that’s “where they should have always been.”

— AP

Happy to see dialog and respect, not threats and impetuousness, swiftly resolved the #sailors episode. Let’s learn from this latest example.

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 13, 2016