US Claims Iranian Naval Convoy Near Yemen

No Iranian Reports Yet on Ships or What They're Doing

Though Iranian state media hasn’t mentioned the fact at all, US military officials claim a naval convoy of between seven and nine Iranian ships is moving somewhere in the vicinity of Yemen.

Details are scant, but officials said only some of the ships may have been armed, and that they might conceivably get into a fight with Saudi ships at some point.

There’s no reason to think that’s actually the case, beyond Pentagon speculation, though Saudi Arabia, which is attacking Yemen right now, has made clear they won’t allow any Iranian ships into Yemeni national waters.

The US speculation is probably warrantless at this point anyhow, as they previously were hysterical about two Iranian ships, one of them a destroyer, being deployed to the region on an anti-piracy operation, but those ships did exactly what they said they were doing, and never picked a fight with the Saudi navy.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.