The standoff between a convoy of Iranian warships and the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt appears to be over for now, the Pentagon said Friday.
“It’s fair to say this appears to be a de-escalation,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said.
The Iranian ships shifted course and now are about half-way up the coast of Oman moving northeast at a pace of about five to six knots and headed back toward the direction of Iran, the Pentagon said. Warren would not provide specifics about where the Roosevelt and the half dozen other U.S. warships that have been monitoring the convoy are located.
The presence of the convoy and the addition of two armed vessels on Thursday had appeared to further escalate tensions off the Yemeni coast.
The Pentagon said it did not know what spurred the Iranian convoy to turn, as no communications have occurred between the U.S. warship group and the convoy, which originally approached Yemen from the Persian Gulf.
