The US shoots down an Iranian Shahed drone that approached its aircraft carrier USS Lincoln “aggressively” in the Arabian Sea

The episode, advanced by the agency Reuters and later confirmed by the United States Central Command, goes against the diplomatic efforts of Qatar, Turkey, Oman and other countries in the region to reduce tensions between Washington and Tehran, which hope to negotiate this week on the evolution of the Iranian nuclear program.

White House spokesperson Caroline Leavitthe assured this Tuesday in Fox News that the incident, which occurred 800 kilometers from the Iranian coast, will not affect the talks with Tehran, which at the moment “are still scheduled” for the end of the week.

This Monday, the president Donald Trump He once again threatened the Islamic Republic with retaliation if it did not impose its will at the dialogue table. “We are talking to Iran and if we can reach an agreement, it would be fantastic, but if we don’t, bad things would probably happen,” he noted from the Oval Office.

For his part, the Iranian president Masud Pezeshkian asked his foreign minister, Araghchito carry out “equitable negotiations” with the United States, with the maxim that “the appropriate conditions be met, without threats or demands.”

In principle, negotiations were scheduled to begin next Friday in Istanbul, with Türkiye and Qatar as mediators. However, as digital advances AxiosIran has asked to change the format and venue of the negotiations to Oman, a more reliable partner.

On this occasion, the Iranians prefer to negotiate face to face, without intermediaries, and discuss only the nuclear program, not their missile program or their support for their related militias in the region, as the White House intends.

Encounter

The incident in the waters of the Arabian Sea, which caused no casualties, according to the Central Command spokesperson, Tim Hawkinshappened just hours after Iranian forces harassed an American-flagged merchant ship with an American crew sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Two vessels linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached the Stena Imperative ship “at high speed and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” according to the Central Command statement.