Washington (CNN)Ten American sailors were being held in Iranian custody after two small U.S. naval craft apparently briefly entered Iranian territorial waters, a U.S. senior defense official said Tuesday.

Another senior defense official told CNN the boats were in the vicinity of Farsi Island for refueling. It’s not clear whether they were refueled, raising the possibility they ran out.

The U.S. lost contact with the two ships, which were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain, a senior administration official told CNN.

A senior administration official told CNN that Secretary of State John Kerry started immediately reaching out to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif once he was notified of the incident. When Kerry reached Zarif on the phone, he explained that the boat had a mechanical problem and that the boat accidentally strayed. Zarif assured Kerry the sailors were being treated well and would be released.

A U.S. official said that it is believed that the sailors were still pierside as of late Tuesday afternoon. Farsi Island is an area where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps — which the semi-official Fars News agency said detained the service members — tends to operate, and they are much more aggressive than the Iranian Navy.

A U.S. official said the sailors may be spending the night in Iran, and it’s not expected that they would depart until after daylight.

The Fars News agency also reported that the American boats were equipped with three, 50-caliber machine guns. The boats crossed a little more than a mile into Iranian-patrolled waters, reported Fars, which cited information recorded on the GPS device of the American vessels and now in the hands of the IRGC.

According to Fars, the “arrested” sailors were nine men and one woman. Iran’s official state news agency, IRNA, reported that the boats were “rescued” by Iranian Navy sailors.

Iranian representatives at the U.N. mission in New York had no comment.

Incident casts shadow on State of the Union Address

The incident was sure to overshadow Obama’s State of the Union address.

Republican Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner suggested to Tapper on CNN that the President delay the start of the speech.

“I think the White House needs to be honest and transparent as quickly as possible with the members of the Congress, the House and the Senate,” Gardner said.

The issue quickly became a discussion topic on the 2016 campaign trail.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson tweeted: “While POTUS is preparing to talk about his so called “accomplishments”, 10 of our American sailors are being held by #Iran.”

And former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tweeted: “If our sailors aren’t coming home yet, they need to be now. No more bargaining. Obama’s humiliatingly weak Iran policy is exposed again.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also joined in the Obama-bashing. “This is the latest manifestation of the weakness of Barack Obama, that every bad actor … views Obama as a laughingstock,” he said.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum demanded the sailors’ immediate return.

“WH says our sailors are being given courtesies? This is feckless. WH is endangering our troops. Demand their return NOW!” he tweeted.

Impact on nuclear deal

The arrest of the sailors came days before a deal agreed between Iran and world powers to freeze its nuclear program is expected to go into force. The IRGC is typically seen as a hardline opponent of President Hassan Rouhani’s more moderate government, which engineered the deal but has had little choice to fall in behind it after the negotiations were endorsed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The IGRC, which is largely responsible for Iran’s nuclear research, is also expected to benefit financially from the lifting of sanctions under the pact in return for a halting of Tehran’s nuclear program. But the lifting of sanctions is what is due to begin with the pending implementation, and this incident could throw a wrench in the works. SOURCE

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