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Sri Lanka will treat sailors rescued from a torpedoed Iranian frigate according to international law, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said Saturday.
Herath said Sri Lanka was caring for 32 sailors from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena under the country’s international treaty obligations.
The IRIS Dena was sunk by a U.S. submarine on Wednesday just off Sri Lanka’s southern coast.
Sri Lanka’s navy rescued survivors from the ship and recovered the bodies of 84 sailors.
Asked whether Colombo was facing pressure from the U.S. not to repatriate the Iranian sailors, Herath did not directly respond.
“We have taken all the steps according to international laws,” he said at a conference in New Delhi.
Sri Lanka also provided safe haven to another Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, and evacuated its 219 crew a day after the Dena was torpedoed.
The vessel was taken to Trincomalee on Sri Lanka’s northeast coast after reporting engine problems.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said earlier this week that the country would follow the Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a warring state until hostilities end.
A senior administration official said Colombo was in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the survivors of the torpedoed ship.
Officials said international humanitarian law applies to the sailors rescued from the Dena and that wounded crew members could be repatriated if they request it.
India also allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock at one of its ports on humanitarian grounds after it reported operational problems.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the decision was made for humanitarian reasons.
“I think it was the humane thing to do and I think we were guided by that principle,” Jaishkar said.
The Lavan docked at the southwest Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
Jaishkar said many of those on board were young cadets who have disembarked and are staying at a nearby facility.
The three Iranian ships had taken part in a multinational fleet review hosted by India before the Middle East war began last Saturday.
Iranian diplomats in Colombo have requested that the remains of the 84 sailors killed in the U.S. attack be returned to Iran.
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