Sri Lanka is drawing praise from analysts and social media commentators after stepping in to rescue and assist more than 200 Iranian sailors caught in the widening conflict in the Indian Ocean, with many calling the island nation’s response both courageous and principled.
The move by the Sri Lankan government to take over the vessel came after the US sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday. The strike marked one of the rare instances since World War II in which a submarine sank a surface warship, and highlighted the expanding scope of the US-Israeli war against Iran. The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies after the attack.
Despite rising geopolitical tensions, Colombo doubled down on its humanitarian approach days later when a second Iranian vessel, IRIS Bushehr, sought assistance while lingering near Sri Lanka’s waters.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that authorities decided to take control of the Iranian vessel IRIS Bushehr after discussions with Iranian officials and the ship’s captain, after one of its engines failed.
“We have to understand that this is not an ordinary situation. It’s a request by a ship belonging to one party to enter into our port. We have to consider that according to the international treaties and conventions,” he told journalists.
Separately on Friday, he wrote on X: “No civilian should die in wars. Our approach is that every single life is as precious as our own.”
The IRIS Bushehr had been described in previous Iranian media reports as a navy logistics ship that also had a helicopter pad on it.
Before the incident, the Iranian warship had recently taken part in the Milan 2026 multinational naval exercise and fleet review held in Visakhapatnam, India.
On social media, commentators widely shared reports of Sri Lanka’s rescue operation, highlighting the navy’s swift response to the distress call from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena.
Carl Zha, a geopolitical commentator and podcast host praised Sri Lanka as the "real guardian of the Indian Ocean" for providing safe harbour and rescuing sailors while criticising silence elsewhere.
Another social media user called it "what humanity looks like," thanking Sri Lanka for deploying ships and aircraft immediately with no politics, just action to save lives.
Journalist Ranga Sirilal shared on X the first official footage and photos of the Sri Lanka Navy's rescue of 32 survivors from IRIS Dena, about 19 nautical miles off Galle.
American journalist Ryan Grim also praised Sri Lanka.
“We responded to the distress call under our international obligations, as this is within our search and rescue area in the Indian Ocean,” Sri Lanka Navy spokesperson Buddhika Sampath told AFP.
Sampath said the sailors of the IRIS Bushehr were being brought first to the port of Colombo, and the ship will later be moved to an eastern port on the island.
“The disembarkation is in progress,” he said, adding the sailors would be taken to the naval base at Welisara, about 20 kilometres north of Colombo, after medical exams and immigration procedures.
In an increasingly polarised international environment, observers say such actions reinforce the longstanding maritime principle that sailors in distress must be helped, regardless of the politics surrounding the conflict.
