U.S. Republican Senator John McCain has said he will subpoena 10 U.S. sailors to testify about their brief detention by Iran if the Obama administration does not provide the findings of an investigation into the incident by March 1.
"It's an option that I do not want to exercise," McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said late on February 14 on his way back to the United States from an international security conference in Germany.
The sailors were detained by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after their two patrol boats strayed into Iranian waters on January 12. U.S. officials later blamed a navigational problem.
The Americans were freed the next day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry intervened with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, averting a diplomatic crisis just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran.
Based on reporting by Reuters
