US pressing Sri Lanka not to repatriate Iranian crew, survivors from sunken ship, says memo

• Iran asked Sri Lanka to help repatriate bodies from sunken frigate.
• US says Sri Lanka has sovereign authority over final decision.
• 208 crew from Iranian vessel offloaded by Sri Lankan forces.

The US is pressing Sri Lanka not to repatriate the survivors from an Iranian warship it sank this week or the crew of a second Iranian ship that is in Sri Lankan custody, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters.

A US submarine sank the frigate Dena in the Indian Ocean about 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka's southern port city of Galle on Wednesday, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening Washington's pursuit of the Iranian navy.

On Thursday, Sri Lanka began offloading 208 crew members from a second Iranian ship, the naval auxiliary vessel Booshehr, which had found itself stranded in Sri Lanka's exclusive economic zone but outside its maritime boundary.

Dena's sinking shows geographic scope of Iran war

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said his South Asian island nation had a "humanitarian responsibility" to take in the crew.

About 20 of the 32 Dena survivors were moved to a Sri Lankan air force camp in Koggala after being discharged from the Galle hospital, some 15 km (10 miles) away, two military sources and one hospital source told Reuters.

The torpedoing of the Dena, which US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth described as "quiet death,"  was the first such action by the United States since World War Two and a clear sign of the Iran conflict's widening geographic scope.

The internal State Department cable, dated Friday and not previously reported, says Jayne Howell, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy in Colombo, had emphasised to Sri Lanka's government that neither the Booshehr crew nor the 32 Dena survivors should be repatriated to Iran.

"Sri Lankan authorities should minimise Iranian attempts to use the detainees for propaganda," the cable says.

A State Department spokesperson, speaking on the condition of anonymity, appeared to suggest that Washington was not trying to dictate Sri Lanka's decision on the issue.

"The United States of course, respects and recognises Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation. The ultimate disposition of the IRIS Bushehr and its crew, as well as the Iranian sailors rescued at sea, is a decision for Sri Lanka to make pursuant to its domestic law and international legal obligations," the spokesperson said.

"We are pursuing dialogue with Sri Lanka, and our utmost goal is to mitigate the threat that Iran poses to the United States and our partners," the spokesperson said.

Representatives for Dissanayake's office and Sri Lanka's foreign ministry were not immediately available for comment.

The cable says Howell told the Israeli ambassador to India and Sri Lanka there was no plan to repatriate the crew to Iran, and that the envoy asked Howell whether there was any engagement with the crew to encourage "defection."

A representative for the Israeli embassy in New Delhi did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka's deputy minister for health ​and mass media, Hansaka Wijemuni, told Reuters that Tehran had asked Colombo for help repatriating the bodies of those killed aboard the Dena but that a timeframe to do so had not been determined.

The Dena had taken part in naval exercises organised by India in the Bay of Bengal last month and was returning to Iran when it was struck by a US torpedo.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the Dena was armed when it was hit and the United States did not provide a warning before carrying out the strike.

The State Department cable says the second vessel, the Booshehr, will remain in Sri Lankan custody for the duration of the conflict.

Sri Lankan authorities said on Friday they were escorting the Booshehr to a harbour on the eastern coast and moving most of its crew to a navy camp near Colombo.