Minister of State Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government, Chandana Abeyratne, says that Provincial Council elections will be held as soon as a consensus is reached on a new electoral framework.

The Minister made these remarks following a ceremony held in Kandy.

According to the minister, the provincial council elections were postponed during the previous administration about seven years ago and emphasized that the current government has not conducted Provinical Council elections as the current administration has identified the requirement of a new electoral system and stated that discussions are underway on this.

Accordingly, a committee has been appointed to decide on how to implement a new electoral system.

Minister Abeyratne emphasized that once the committee concludes its work and an agreement is reached, the government is committed to conducting the elections without further delay.

Post-mortem examinations conducted on the bodies of 84 Iranian sailors recovered from a sunken vessel have revealed that they died from fractures caused by an explosion, internal injuries and drowning, officials said on Friday (6).

The sailors had been aboard the Iranian warship IRIS Dena, which sank following a torpedo attack by a United States submarine.

Their bodies were brought to the Galle National Hospital by the Sri Lanka Navy, where a team of specialist judicial medical officers carried out the examinations.

The autopsies were conducted by Professor U.C.P. Perera, Ajitha Ranaweera, and Janaki Varushaheddeni together with 12 other forensic medical officers.

The examinations continued until 5 a.m. on Friday, with the forensic team divided into three groups in order to examine three bodies simultaneously.

Following the post-mortem examinations, the remains were placed in two designated cold storage facilities.

According to the findings, the sailors had died from blast-related fractures, internal trauma and drowning.

The Ministry of Defence yesterday (7) rejected foreign media reports which claimed that the United States had pressured Sri Lanka not to return rescued Iranian sailors to Tehran following recent maritime incidents in the Indian Ocean.

“There is no truth to the claims that the US Government or the US Embassy have applied pressure on Sri Lanka to refrain from returning the sailors to Iran and no such dialogue has taken place,” Deputy Minister of Defence Major General (Retd) Aruna Jayasekara said, adding that there had been no conversation regarding the matter thus far.

He stated that no one had spoken on behalf of the US Government or the embassy regarding this matter, adding that it appeared that certain media outlets were spreading the news, but there had been no such information, dialogue, or conversation on the issue.

Jayasekara also confirmed that the rescued sailors were currently being accommodated at secure locations under Sri Lankan custody while administrative and diplomatic processes continued.

“The 32 Iranian sailors rescued from the first vessel have been relocated to a secure location in Galle at the Boossa cantonment, while the 204 sailors from the second vessel are being kept under Sri Lankan custody in Welisara,” Jayasekara said.

He noted that Sri Lanka had to carefully balance its international relationships while addressing the situation.

“Sri Lanka maintains long-standing relations with Iran, but we also need to maintain relations with the US and Israel, particularly because many Sri Lankan expatriate workers are employed in Israel,” he said.

The comments come after reports suggested that Washington had sought to prevent the return of the sailors amid concerns that Iran could use the incident for political messaging.

Sri Lanka, however, has maintained that its actions have been guided strictly by humanitarian obligations and international law.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo said that decisions relating to the sailors and related diplomatic matters would be handled in accordance with established international frameworks.

“Respective international law and diplomatic norms will guide the enforcement,” Rodrigo said.

He also cautioned against the political exploitation of those involved in the maritime incidents: “Using the victims for publicity or propaganda will only further complicate the situation. Our objective is to help de-escalate tensions, not inflame them.”

Rodrigo reiterated Sri Lanka’s broader diplomatic position amid the ongoing geopolitical tensions, noting: “Sri Lanka is a neutral country in the international political landscape and we believe in diplomatic engagement for a peaceful resolution.”

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – The United States is pressing Sri Lanka’s government not to repatriate the survivors from ​the Iranian warship it sank this week, as well as the crew of a second Iranian ship that is in Sri ‌Lankan custody, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday.
A U.S. submarine sank the IRIS Dena warship in the Indian Ocean about 19 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southern port city of Galle on Wednesday, killing dozens of sailors and dramatically widening Washington’s pursuit of the Iranian navy.

On Thursday, Sri Lanka began offloading 208 crew members from ​a second Iranian ship, the naval auxiliary vessel IRIS Booshehr, which had found itself stranded in Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone but outside ​its maritime boundary.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said his island nation had a “humanitarian responsibility” to take in the crew.

The torpedoing ⁠of the Dena – which U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as “quiet death” – was the first such action by the United States since World War Two ​and a clear sign of the Iran conflict’s widening geographic scope.

The internal State Department cable, which was dated March 6 and has not been previously reported, ​said Jayne Howell, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Colombo, had emphasized to Sri Lanka’s government that neither the Booshehr crew nor the 32 Dena survivors should be repatriated to Iran.

It said “Sri Lankan authorities should minimize Iranian attempts to use the detainees for propaganda.”

A State Department spokesperson speaking on the condition of anonymity appeared to suggest that Washington ​was not trying to dictate Sri Lanka’s decision on the issue.

“The United States of course respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of ​this situation. The ultimate disposition of the IRIS Bushehr and its crew, as well as the Iranian sailors rescued at sea, is a decision for Sri Lanka to make ‌pursuant to ⁠its domestic law and international legal obligations,” the spokesperson said.

“We are pursuing dialogue with Sri Lanka and our utmost goal is to mitigate the threat that Iran poses to the United States and our partners,” the spokespersons added.

Representatives for Dissanayake’s office and Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry were not immediately available for comment.

The cable said Howell also told the Israeli ambassador to India and Sri Lanka there was no plan to repatriate the crew to Iran. The envoy asked Howell ​whether there was any engagement with the ​crew to encourage “defection”, the cable ⁠said.

A representative for the Israeli embassy in New Delhi did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Sri Lanka’s deputy minister for health and mass media, Hansaka Wijemuni, told Reuters that Tehran had asked Colombo for help repatriating ​the bodies of those killed aboard the Dena, but a timeframe to do so has not yet been ​determined.

The Dena had taken ⁠part in naval exercises organised by India in the Bay of Bengal last month and was returning to Iran when it was struck by a U.S. torpedo.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the Dena was armed when it was hit and the United States did not provide a warning before ⁠carrying out the ​strike.

The State Department cable said the second vessel, the Booshehr, will remain in Sri Lankan ​custody for the duration of the conflict.

Sri Lankan authorities said on Friday that they were escorting the Booshehr to a harbor on the eastern coast and moving most of its crew to a ​navy camp near Colombo.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Uditha Jayasinghe in Colombo; Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis

Tamil parties from the north and the east have decided not to act individually or on party basis in government-initiated dialogues on constitutional formulation and matters relating to the ethnic issue.

Meeting in Colombo on 02 March under the auspices of the Tamil Lawyers Forum (TLF), they reached common ground that a federal constitution should allow for Tamils’ sovereignty and self-determination in order to find a lasting solution for them.

The Tamil parties decided to formulate a draft inclusive of basic aspects of a federal system of governance in order to reach social consensus among the Tamil and Sinhala communities.

Participants at the discussion were TNPF’s Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, secretary Selvraja Gajendran, ITAK secretary M.A. Sumanthiran, Sivagnanam Sridaran, Thurairasa Raviharan, TELO leader Selvam Addailakalanathan, secretary Govindan Karunakaran, media spokesman Suren Gurusamy and EPRL leader Suresh Premachandran.

The TLF coordinators of the event were K.S. Ratnavel, V. Puvidaran, Prof. S. Sarveshvaran, Suganthi Rajakulendra, V.S. Niranjan, G.K. Ranitha and M. Jude Dinesh.

The process initiated will be taken forward on several fronts, the TLF said.

A humanitarian crisis is unfolding off the coast of Sri Lanka as a second Iranian vessel has been reported stranded near Panadura, carrying nearly 300 children in desperate need of supplies.

The Iranian Embassy in Colombo has issued an urgent appeal to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence, requesting 24-hour access to a local port to secure essential food and drinking water for those on board.

Sources indicate that while the request was initially met with administrative silence, a high-profile diplomatic intervention has since cleared the way for the vessel to dock.

The situation came to light earlier today during a visit by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Iranian Embassy.

Mr. Wickremesinghe had arrived to sign the book of condolence following the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

During the visit, embassy officials reportedly briefed the former president on the stranded ship’s dire circumstances and the pending request for humanitarian assistance.

Following this meeting, the Governor of the Western Province, Hanif Yusoof, reportedly intervened to apprise the President of the situation.

Current reports suggest that, following this high-level mediation, the vessel has finally been granted permission to enter a Sri Lankan port on humanitarian grounds.

This latest maritime incident adds a layer of complexity to an already volatile regional situation.

Only yesterday, an Iranian naval vessel was reported in distress approximately 40 nautical miles off the coast of Galle.

The incident coincided with a provocative claim from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that an Iranian warship had been struck and sunk by a torpedo in the Indian Ocean.