Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA), the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement regarding the Navy’s release of its report on the January 12, 2016 incident at Farsi Island:

“The Iranian government had no reason to seize a U.S. Navy vessel in this situation. Similar incursions happen often, and verbal communication instead of this illegal act would have sufficed.‎ The Navy appears to have performed an appropriate investigation into this unfortunate incident and is taking reasonable disciplinary and other steps in response. It can be easy to point fingers, but military operations are complex and dangerous, and things do go wrong. When that happens, you have to take the proper corrective actions and learn the appropriate lessons.”

###