Iranian authorities are making arrangements to return most of the crew of the Iranian warship Iris Lavan, which docked in Kochi last week, through a special charter flight, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The same charter flight will also carry the bodies of Iranian sailors who were killed when another warship, the IRIS Dena, was hit by a torpedo and sunk by a US submarine near Sri Lanka on March 4, the people said, asking to remain anonymous.
The sources said that the Iranian side intends to return non-essential members of the IRIS Lavan’s 183-member crew, while a limited number of crew members will remain to maintain the warship.
The chartered flight headed to Colombo to retrieve the bodies of sailors killed during the sinking of the Iris Dena, but did not take off from the Sri Lankan capital until late Friday night, the people said.
“The IRIS Lavan crew members will be repatriated in a special flight organized by the Iranian side in coordination with the Indian authorities,” one of the people said, without providing details.
“The bodies of sailors from Iris Dina will also be sent from Kochi,” he added.
Reports in Sri Lankan media said that 45 bodies of crew members of the IRIS Dena ship were transferred from Galle National Hospital to Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport for airlift.
Sri Lankan authorities have recovered the bodies of 84 Iranian sailors after the IRIS Dena ship sank. They also rescued 32 crew members who were being held at a naval facility.
IRIS Dena participated in the International Fleet Review and multi-nation exercise hosted by the Indian Navy last month.
On March 1, India granted permission to three Iranian warships that were in territorial waters – Iris Dina, Iris Lavan, and Iris Bushehr – to dock in the country’s ports in response to a request from Tehran. However, only the IRIS Lavan docked in Kochi on March 4 and its 183-member crew was accommodated at offshore facilities.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the Indian government’s decision to allow IRIS Lavan to dock in Kochi was “the right thing to do”, and that the decision was taken on humanitarian grounds.
The IRIS Booshehr docked in Colombo and its 204 crew were sent to a Sri Lankan naval facility, while the IRIS Dena was sunk by a US submarine in international waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan authorities and Iranian Embassy officials in Colombo are in discussions regarding the next steps for the Iranian sailors currently under Sri Lanka’s care. The Sri Lankan government decided to grant free visas for a month to Iranian sailors and provide them with the necessary facilities for humanitarian reasons.
