US warship departing Persian Gulf

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Pentagon said on Friday that the warship moved through the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea and is expected to be back at its home port on the West Coast before Christmas, the Associated Press reported. The decision was made after the aircraft carrier was ordered to be present in the region because the White House planned to attack Syria over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. However, Damascus denied the accusation and Russia put an end to the war plans by proposing Syria to surrender its chemical weapons. Under a resolution approved by the United Nations Security Council in September, Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal must be eliminated by mid-2014. A team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the UN are implementing the resolution. Meanwhile, US Navy officials said the USS Graveley also has left the Mediterranean Sea and is returning home. The aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman remains in the North Arabian Sea, and three US warships -- the USS Stout and the USS Ramage, and the USS Monterey, are in the eastern Mediterranean Sea./149