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A U.S. fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that approached the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, marking a dangerous escalation as diplomats scrambled to salvage nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier "with unclear intent" and was destroyed by an F-35 fighter jet in self-defense, the U.S. military's Central Command said. Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a Central Command spokesperson, said the drone approached "aggressively" and the jet acted to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board.
No American service members were harmed during the incident and no U.S. equipment was damaged, Hawkins added.
The confrontation occurred as Iran demanded last-minute changes to planned Friday nuclear talks, seeking to relocate the meeting from Istanbul to Oman and shift to a bilateral format excluding Arab observers. The twin developments, military confrontation at sea and diplomatic complications on shore, come as the efforts to prevent armed conflict between the longtime adversaries frag.
Hours after the drone shootdown, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed a U.S.-flagged, U.S.-crewed merchant vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, Central Command said in a separate statement.
"Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker," Hawkins said.
The incidents came as President Donald Trump warned that with U.S. warships heading toward Iran, "bad things" would probably happen if a deal could not be reached. The Lincoln carrier strike group represents the most visible component of a U.S. military buildup in the Middle East following Iran's violent suppression of anti-government demonstrations last month, the deadliest domestic unrest in Iran since its 1979 revolution.
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during the crackdown, has since demanded Tehran make nuclear concessions and deployed a flotilla to its coast. He said last week Iran was "seriously talking," while Tehran's top security official, Ali Larijani, said arrangements for negotiations were under way.
The drone incident adds urgency to diplomatic efforts already complicated by Iran's reversal on venue and format for Friday's scheduled talks. Tehran initially agreed to meet in Istanbul with multiple Arab and Muslim nations observing, but sources told Axios that Iran now wants the meeting relocated to Oman and limited to bilateral discussions with only U.S. officials present.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and White House envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to lead the negotiating teams if the talks proceed. Araghchi held calls on Tuesday with his Omani and Turkish counterparts, and with the prime minister of Qatar, as diplomatic channels remained active despite the military confrontation.
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