Upon learning of Iran's capture of 10 U.S. Navy sailors yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry reportedly told Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that the incident could “be a good story for both of us.”
Kerry's comment was revealed during State Department conference call with the media immediately after it was reported that the sailors had been freed on Wednesday. Here’s what one unnamed senior State Department official said during the call:
The Secretary made clear that our most important priority – and that this was critical – was that they be released, obviously, safely and unharmed and as quickly as possible, and that if we were able to do this – and this is something that he said to Zarif on a few occasions – if we are able to do this in the right way, we can make this into what will be a good story for both of us.
One member of the media quickly followed up for more information:
QUESTION: Hi there, [Senior State Department Official]. You said that Kerry told Zarif that it would be a "good story" for both the United States and Iran. I get the good story that Kerry is telling. What’s the good story he had in mind for Iran? And what – how exactly were the sailors picked up? You said they were picked up – so they didn’t leave in their boats, and how did they get their boats back? And --
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: So – right, I’m going to – this may not be satisfying, but I’m going to leave all the details of that sort of thing to the Defense Department, which I know is still gathering information, debriefing the people involved. And I don’t have much more to tell you than I’ve already said.
In terms of a good story, I won’t speak to how Iran will portray this or characterize their narrative of the situation, but I think what we had in mind, what the Secretary had in mind was that it would be a demonstration of them operating as a responsible maritime operation in the Gulf and a responsible nation that would deal with these things in a way that other responsible nations have in the past and would going forward. I think it was an opportunity to demonstrate that they had the ability to cooperate and to be responsible when presented with a complicated situation like this.
Sounds like someone was channeling their inner Rahm Emanuel -- after all, a serious crisis should never go to waste.
The State Department also took a moment to congratulate itself on forging such a wonderful diplomatic connection with Iran:
I would add that we have no indication, but these conversations are sort of ongoing, as we learn more and debrief the sailors involved, that our sailors were mistreated.
And I just wanted to underscore the point I made at the beginning that had this happened three years ago – and you can point to sort of similar incidents in which – that we’re aware of in which British and other sailors have run into problems like this in the Gulf with the Government of Iran and with the Iranian military – had this happened a few years ago before we had this very direct line of communication at a very senior level of our government, it undoubtedly would have been much more complicated to unwind, would undoubtedly have taken longer and risked all sorts of ancillary effects that would be unpredictable.