Tuesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) reacted to the Obama administration’s response to 10 U.S. sailors being in Iranian custody after two U.S. Navy vessels allegedly drifted into Iranian waters.
Cotton expressed his skepticism in the Iranian claim the U.S. vessels actually drifted into Iranian waters, and also question the Obama administration’s response.
“[T]he administration is rushing out officials to say there’s no hostile intent in Iran’s seizing our ships and holding our sailors incommunicado,” Cotton said. “President Obama and his administration seems intent on protecting Iran and the nuclear deal than getting our sailors back. Look, if you put up the map of the Persian Gulf again, Wolf — Americans and can see for themselves how unlikely it is those two ships drifted from the coast of Saudi Arabia, which is the path they would take from Kuwait to Bahrain, into Iranian waters. However, even if they did, Wolf — even if they did enter Iranian waters what we would expect a responsible, civilized country to do? They would immediately let the sailors contact the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain. If we had a Mexican ship that came into our waters or one of the ships went into the Saudi Arabian waters, that’s what we would expect them to do for us, that’s what we would do for them. The fact they feel comfortable holding these ships and these sailors and parading weapons on Iranian TV goes to show how emboldened the nuclear deal has made Iran.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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