• F-35C shot down drone in Arabian Sea: Centcom spokesperson.
• Iranian gunboats approach US-flagged tanker in Strait of Hormuz.
• Fars reports vessel entered Iranian waters without legal permit.
  

A US stealth warplane shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached an American aircraft carrier as it sailed in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, a US military spokesperson said.

“An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defence and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board,” Central Command spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins said in a statement.

No American service members were harmed during the incident and no US equipment was damaged, he added.

The incident comes days after the US Central Command (Centcom) warned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) against “any unsafe and unprofessional behaviour near US forces”.

Washington has deployed a naval strike group to the Middle East led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with President Donald Trump threatening to intervene militarily following anti-government protests in Iran that peaked last month.

Meanwhile, maritime sources and a security consultancy said that a group of Iranian gunboats approached a US-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman.

The Iranian boats ordered the tanker, the Stena Imperative, to stop its engine and prepare to be boarded before it could speed up and continue its voyage, maritime risk management group Vanguard said.

The vessel did not enter Iranian internal territorial waters and was escorted by a US warship, the maritime risk management group said. An American official confirmed it was US flagged.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations earlier said that a group of armed boats attempted to intercept a vessel 16 nautical miles (30 km) north of Oman, without identifying the vessel or the boats.

The agency said it was investigating the incident, which happened in the inbound Traffic Separation Scheme of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency cited unnamed Iranian officials as saying later on Tuesday that a vessel had entered Iranian territorial waters without the necessary legal permits, was warned and left the area “without any special security event taking place.”

The strait links the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea beyond.

Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq export most of their crude via the strait, mainly to Asia.

Three vessels, two in 2023 and one in 2024, were seized by Iran near or in the strait. Some of the seizures followed US seizures of tankers related to Iran.

• India buys Russian oil on discounted price.
• US tariff reduces India’s Russian oil buying by 38%.
• Modi doesn’t say US ask for halting oil purchases.
  

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had not received any indication from India that it would stop buying Russian oil following the announcement of a trade deal with US President Donald Trump.

Trump said he had struck a deal to reduce tariffs on India and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to stop buying Russian oil over the war in Ukraine.

India’s purchases of Russian oil — discounted due to Western sanctions complicating logistics and cutting off markets — have surged since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine and its Western allies have been seeking to cut off the billions of dollars in revenue, a vital source of income for Russia’s stretched economy and its military.

“So far, we haven’t heard any statements from New Delhi on this matter,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including AFP.

Trump said he was cutting levies on Indian goods to 18%. He had previously imposed 25% “reciprocal” tariffs on many products, plus an additional 25% for New Delhi’s purchases of Moscow’s oil.

While Modi thanked Trump for the “wonderful” phone call and the easing of tariffs, he made no reference to Trump’s assertion about halting oil purchases.

In 2024, Russia supplied nearly 36% of India’s total crude imports, around 1.8 million barrels of discounted oil per day.

But after Trump hit New Delhi with tariffs, India’s monthly oil imports from Russia plunged by 38%, local media reported, citing India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s data.

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised “uninterrupted shipments” of oil during a visit to New Delhi in late 2025.

Bilateral trade between the two sides reached $68.7 billion in 2024-25 — almost six times higher than the pre-pandemic levels — dominated by Moscow’s energy sales, with Indian exports to Russia accounting for under $5 billion.

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has warned that stabilising Gaza requires simultaneous progress on Palestinian statehood and Israeli security, built through regional and international cooperation, saying that the same political urgency is required to prevent tensions with Iran from spiralling into another Middle East crisis.

The message was delivered by Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during a session at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, where he said the region could not afford to deal with either Gaza or Iran through force or repeated confrontation.

“The way forward in Gaza is political,” Gargash said. “The Middle East has already witnessed calamitous confrontations, and it does not need another escalation, whether in Gaza or with Iran.”

He said any sustainable outcome for Gaza must emerge from a joint framework involving Palestinians, Egypt, Israel, Jordan and key international partners, with the United States playing a central role in shaping a political settlement.

Gargash reiterated that the UAE has no ambition to administer Gaza, rejecting speculation that Abu Dhabi could take on a civilian governing role in the enclave.

“The UAE has no separate national agenda for Gaza,” he said, adding that while the country remains a major humanitarian donor, governance and reconstruction must be rooted in a broader political process.

Turning to Iran, Gargash said unresolved tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme and regional posture risk opening a second major crisis in a Middle East already shaken by the Gaza war.

“From everything that I know, Iran today needs to reach a deal,” he said, pointing to the economic pressure and geopolitical strain facing Tehran. He added that rebuilding Iran’s relations with the United States through a broader political and geostrategic agreement was essential for long-term stability.

He called for direct US-Iran negotiations, warning that without an understanding, Iran’s nuclear file would remain a persistent source of instability for the region.

Gargash said the same principle applied to both files: Gaza’s future and Iran’s nuclear dispute must be resolved through political processes rather than open-ended confrontation.

A credible path towards Palestinian statehood that guarantees Israel’s security, alongside a deal that curbs Iran’s nuclear ambitions and eases its isolation, would help defuse regional tensions and create space for reconstruction and economic recovery, he said.