The Obama administration stressed Wednesday morning that it has not apologized to Iran after that country said two U.S. Navy boats crossed into Iranian waters Tuesday, leading to the temporary capture of 10 U.S. sailors.
The BBC reported early Wednesday that the U.S. apologized for the incident, and Iran’s state news agency said the U.S. did offer an apology. But top U.S. officials said there’s nothing to those claims.
“No there were no apologies, there was nothing to apologize for,” Vice President Joe Biden told CBS.
State Department spokesman John Kirby added that Secretary of State John Kerry also hasn’t apologized to Iran. In a tweet, he said there was “zero truth” to those rumors.
Absolutely ZERO truth to rumors that @JohnKerry apologized to Iran over Sailors. Nothing to apologize for.
— Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox) January 13, 2016
After Iran released the 10 sailors Wednesday, Kerry did express his thanks to Iran for letting them go.
“I want to express my gratitude to Iranian authorities for their cooperation ‎in swiftly resolving this matter,” he said.
