Iran Holding 2 US Navy Boats in Persian Gulf

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Farsi Island is home to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps naval base. That may be why the sailors were quickly detained, said Matthew Kroenig, a senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, to VOA Tuesday.

“Most countries would do the same thing if foreign sailors came that close to a naval base,” Kroenig explained.

It also came just hours before President Barack Obama was to deliver his final State of the Union address to Congress and the public. Part of the address is expected to address concerns of Congress over a nuclear deal between Tehran and Western powers. That deal was reached last year.

The deal is set to curb Iran's nuclear program. In return, Western governments will lift economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.