A US Navy fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone after it moved toward the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, US Central Command said on Tuesday.
In an emailed statement to news agency AFP, the military said the drone “aggressively approached” the carrier with “unclear intent” and “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalatory measures taken by US forces operating in international waters.”
The shootdown came within hours of another confrontation in the region, during which Iranian forces harassed a US-flagged and US-crewed merchant vessel transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the US military.
US Central Command said the Shahed-139 drone was downed by an F-35C fighter jet operating from the Abraham Lincoln, which was sailing roughly 500 miles (800 kilometres) from Iran’s southern coast at the time. The statement added that no American personnel were injured and no equipment was damaged.
Later the same day, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces again targeted commercial shipping, the US military said, harassing the merchant vessel Stena Imperative.
According to the statement, two fast-moving boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the ship “at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker.”
Earlier in the day, contrary to the development, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed that he has ordered the start of talks with the United States, provided negotiations take place in an environment “free from threats and unreasonable expectations,” marking Tehran’s clearest signal yet of willingness to re-engage diplomatically with Washington amid heightened regional tensions.
“I have instructed my minister of foreign affairs, provided that a suitable environment exists — one free from threats and unreasonable expectations — to pursue fair and equitable negotiations,” Pezeshkian said in a post on X, adding that the move followed requests “from friendly governments”.
The development came after US President Donald Trump warned that “bad things would happen” if a deal is not reached, even as he expressed hope that Washington and Tehran could “work something out.”
The US has sent an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East following Iran’s violent crackdown on nationwide anti-government protests last month.
“We have talks going on with Iran… and if we could work something out, that’d be great. And if we can’t, probably bad things would happen,” Trump said, according to AP.
Since returning to the office, Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” sanctions policy on Iran, further straining its economy, AFP reported.
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