The US military Iran says it has shot down a drone that “aggressively” approached the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea.
US Central Command said on Tuesday that an F-35 fighter jet shot down an Iranian Shahed-139 drone as it was flying towards the carrier with “unclear intent”.
“An F-35C fighter jet from the Abraham Lincoln downed the Iranian drone in self-defense and to protect the aircraft carrier and crew on board,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesman at Central Command. No U.S. service members were injured or equipment damaged, he said.
Iran’s UN mission declined to comment on the claims, but Iran’s Tasnim news agency said it had lost contact with the drone in international waters, but the cause was unknown. The semi-official Fars news agency reported that the Iranian drone had completed a “surveillance mission in international waters”.
In another incident on Tuesday, in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) harassed a US-flagged merchant vessel with crew, the Central Command said. “Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the M/V Stena Imperative at high speed and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Hawkins said.
The drone incident comes as diplomats try to set up nuclear talks between Iran and the US Donald Trump As US warships head towards Iran, he said “bad things” could possibly happen if a deal is not reached.
Iranian President Massoud Pezheshkian said on Tuesday that he had ordered the country’s foreign minister.Maintain fair and equitable negotiations” with the US, the first clear sign that Tehran wants to negotiate with Washington.
Despite the drone incident, Trump’s ambassador Steve Wittkoff plans to hold talks with Iranian officials in Turkey later this week, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said, in the first direct acknowledgment of the White House talks.
However, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said later on Tuesday that consultations at the venue were still ongoing, Iran’s Noor News reported later on Tuesday, amid reports that Tehran wanted to hold them in Oman rather than Turkey and limited them to discussing nuclear-related issues. A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was quoted as saying by Noor News that Turkey, Oman and many other countries have expressed their readiness to host the meeting.
Pezeshkian’s announcement marked a significant turnaround for the reformist president, who has told Iranians for weeks that the country’s turmoil was beyond his control. It also indicated that he had the support of Iran’s Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Ali Khameneifor talks, the 86-year-old cleric had previously ruled out.
The most visible part is the Lincoln carrier strike group US military buildup in the Middle East Last month followed a violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Iran, the worst domestic unrest since the 1979 revolution.
Trump, who stopped short of his threat to intervene during the crackdown, has since demanded Tehran make nuclear concessions and sent a flotilla to its coast. He said last week that Iran was “talking seriously.”
