CENTCOM said an Iranian drone approached the USS Abraham Lincoln with “unclear intentions” before being shot down.
The US military says it has shot down an Iranian drone that approached a US aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, as regional powers continue efforts to de-escalate tensions between Washington and Iran.
U.S. fighter jets aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone “in self-defense and to protect the carrier and its crew,” U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Tim Hawkins said in a statement Tuesday.
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The Shahed 139 drone was shot down by a Lincoln F-35C as it was traveling about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Iran’s southern coast.
Centcom said the drone approached the carrier in an “aggressive manner” with “unclear intentions” and “continued to fly toward the ship despite de-escalation measures taken by U.S. forces operating in international waters.”
There was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities on the incident.
The announcement comes amid easing tensions between Iran and Washington after US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over its recent crackdown on anti-government protests.
President Trump has also been pressuring Iran to agree to talks over its nuclear program, sending the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to Iran last week, raising concerns about a possible military conflict.
But amid days of diplomatic efforts, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday he had instructed the country’s foreign minister to “pursue fair and impartial negotiations.”
“I have instructed the foreign minister to pursue fair and impartial negotiations based on the principles of dignity, prudence and expediency, as long as an appropriate environment exists, free from intimidation and undue expectations,” he said on social media.
“These negotiations will take place within the framework of national interests,” Pezeshkian added.
The talks are scheduled to take place on Friday, but the venue has not yet been finalized.
It is unclear whether the downing of the Iranian drone will affect negotiations plans.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff “is scheduled to meet with the Iranian side later this week.”
“Those are still scheduled at this point,” Levitt said.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said they are open to nuclear negotiations, but only if the Trump administration stops threatening the country.
Reporting from the Iranian capital Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said the exact topics that would be discussed between the two countries remained unclear.
Iranian officials have said they want negotiations to focus on the country’s nuclear program, but Washington reportedly wants to discuss a wide range of issues, including Iran’s relations with regional armed groups, as well as its ballistic missile and defense programs.
Tehran has also said it wants talks to be bilateral only with Washington, but the United States has shown more willingness to involve other regional powers, Assadi added.
“[Iran] expresses gratitude for the local efforts towards… [bring] under [tensions] Meanwhile, major issues between Washington and Tehran remain unresolved.”
Separately on Tuesday, Centcom accused Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) forces of harassing a U.S.-flagged, U.S.-crewed commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Gulf waterway for global trade.
“Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajar drone approached the M/V Stena Imperative at high speed and threatened to board the tanker and seize it,” CENTCOM spokesperson Hawkins said.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency quoted an unnamed Iranian official later in the day as saying the vessel had entered Iranian territorial waters without the necessary legal permission.
Officials said the vessel was alerted and left the area “without any special security events.”
