An Iranian naval
convoy suspected of carrying weapons for Shiite rebels in Yemen has
turned back, US officials said, as Saudi-led warplanes kept up air
strikes on anti-government forces.
The conflict
has sent tensions soaring between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite
Iran, which backs the Huthi rebels, raising fears Yemen could become a
new front in a proxy war between Middle East powers.
Yemeni
Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin accused Tehran Thursday of trying to
break a naval blockade on his country, describing the war as an "Iranian
plot implemented by the Huthi militia".
A US official said Thursday the nine-ship Iranian convoy that had been heading for Yemen is "no longer on the same course".
The
USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and other American warships
have deployed off Yemen's coast to track the Iranian flotilla and
possibly prevent any arms deliveries to the rebels.
The flotilla included two "armed vessels," said the US official.
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