Sri Lanka will accede to a request from the Iranian government to replace three crew members of an Iranian ship in Sri Lankan waters, Deputy Minister Arun Hemachandra told Parliament on Friday.
He said the matter would be dealt with through diplomatic and defence channels, the Daily Mirror reported.
The Deputy Minister was responding to Opposition MP Rauff Hakeem, who had urged the government to allow the replacement.
A ship inside Sri Lankan waters, not off them
The exchange is narrow but the location is significant. Sri Lanka’s recent statements about Iranian shipping have been about vessels outside its waters.
When Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath briefed the Cabinet media conference on 8 September, he put 47 vessels in international waters more than 24 nautical miles out after the US Embassy in Colombo asked whether Colombo was monitoring them. His position then was unambiguous: “They are not in our waters.”
Friday’s statement concerns a ship that is. The most likely subject is the Iranian warship IRIS Bushehr, interned at the Trincomalee naval base since March after the sinking of the IRIS Dena — but the Daily Mirror does not name the vessel, and LankaNewz has not confirmed which ship is meant.
The 208 crew of the IRIS Bushehr and 32 survivors from the IRIS Dena were held in Sri Lanka for months, and 238 Iranian nationals were flown home on a Turkish Airlines charter as that episode closed. A residual crew remaining with an interned vessel would be consistent with a request to rotate three of them.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not name the ship, say where in Sri Lankan waters it lies, or explain why a crew change was sought — whether for medical reasons, expiry of a tour of duty, or something else. It does not say who the three crew members are, when the replacement would take place, how the incoming crew would enter the country, or whether the United States was informed.
Nor does it say whether the government treats this ship as connected to the 47-vessel anchorage, or whether Hakeem’s intervention followed a representation from the Iranian Embassy. No other verified newsroom had filed on the exchange at the time of writing.
