U.S. Navy carrier departing Persian Gulf region

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is bringing an aircraft carrier home from the Persian Gulf region, the Defense Department said Friday, after keeping two of the warships there for months as the Obama administration considered a military strike on Syria.

The decision to bring back the USS Nimitz underscores the shift from a pointed military threat against the Syrian government to a broader diplomatic approach.

It comes as international experts work to meet a mid-2014 deadline to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program.

According to officials, the Nimitz 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 Navy destroyer the USS Graveley also has left the Mediterranean Sea and is returning home, reducing the U.S. naval presence there as well.

Earlier this summer, in the aftermath of a deadly Aug. 21 chemical weapon attack on rebel-held Damascus suburbs, the U.S. sharply increased its Navy presence in the region. Washington and its allies said the Syrian government was responsible for the attack.

The U.S. spread cruisers and destroyers across the eastern Mediterranean, just waiting for the command to launch missiles into Syria. But after threatening military action for weeks, President Barack Obama on Aug. 31 abruptly announced he would go to Congress for approval of a strike.