• 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.

RIYADH: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday, Saudi media said, his first visit to the kingdom in over two years.

Ties between Turkiye and Saudi Arabia have steadily recovered in recent years, with the countries cooperating on a range of diplomatic issues.

This includes support for Gaza and backing Syria’s new government in the wake of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

Erdogan is set to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the visit — his first to the kingdom since July 2023, which was part of a Gulf trip aimed at drumming up investments.

There was no official indication of what the two sides would discuss.

But Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported that they would discuss the “deepening cooperation” between the countries, as well as regional and global developments.

It added that Erdogan would then travel to Cairo on Wednesday.

The meeting in Riyadh comes days ahead of a potential round of talks in Turkiye between the United States and Iran on February 6, an Arab official told AFP early Tuesday, after Tehran called for the restart of nuclear talks and Washington warned of consequences if a deal was not reached.

Erdogan has emerged as one of the key mediators leading a diplomatic push to find a resolution between the long-time foes to head off open conflict between the two sides.

• 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.