Sri Lanka rejects Trump's threats, will return Iranian sailors’ bodies
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Colombo: In the wake of the joint attacks by the US and Israel against Iran, a Sri Lankan court has ordered the return of the bodies of 84 sailors from the Iranian warship Iris Dena, which was attacked by the US 40 nautical miles off the Sri Lankan coast.
The US submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship 'IRIS Dena' on Wednesday, March 4, as it was returning from the International Fleet Review (IFR) and the Milan-2026 naval exercise that concluded in Visakhapatnam on February 25.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump had instructed Sri Lanka not to hand over the bodies of the killed Iranian sailors to Iran. However, the Sri Lankan court has ordered that it will not give in to Trump's threat and will hand over the bodies to Iran.
The Galle court had earlier ordered the transfer of the bodies kept in the morgue of the Galle National Hospital to the Iranian embassy. Following this, a Sri Lankan court also issued a similar order. With this, the bodies were taken to Iran on a special flight from Sri Lanka's Mathala International Airport on Friday.
32 survivors of the attack are currently being treated in a Sri Lankan hospital. In addition to them, 208 crew members of another Iranian ship, the 'IRIS Booshehr', which arrived in Sri Lanka due to a technical fault, have also been granted 30-day entry visas by Sri Lankan Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara, according to news agency Reuters.
There are also reports that the United States has pressured Sri Lanka not to repatriate the survivors of the attack. Meanwhile, the issue poses a major diplomatic challenge for Sri Lanka, as the United States and Iran are major trading partners of Sri Lanka.