Iran said a Shahed-129 surveillance drone successfully completed a reconnaissance mission in international waters, transmitting real-time intelligence to ground stations before contact was mysteriously lost—claims that directly contradict the U.S. account that an F-35C from USS Abraham Lincoln shot the UAV down for approaching “aggressively.” Tensions spiked further after CENTCOM accused Iranian boats and a Mohajer drone of harassing a U.S.-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, forcing the destroyer USS McFaul to intervene. The confrontation erupts just days before scheduled U.S.–Iran nuclear talks, raising fears that a single miscalculation could ignite a wider military clash and sink diplomacy before it even begins.