Monitoring and analyzing drought conditions are essential for optimal water resource management. Over the past decades, various indices have been developed to quantify drought characteristics. Given the increasing impact of climate change on drought events, selecting an index that performs effectively under changing climatic conditions is crucial. This study investigates drought conditions in the Central Plateau region of Iran from 2000 to 2021 by comparing the performance of three drought indices: The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI), and the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). While SPI relies solely on precipitation data, RDI and SPEI incorporate potential evapotranspiration. The effectiveness of these indices was assessed based on their correlation with soil moisture fluctuations, using the Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) as a remote sensing-based soil moisture indicator.  The study area comprises provinces in Iran’s Central Plateau region. SPI was calculated using precipitation data from 16 selected synoptic stations, while potential evapotranspiration for RDI and SPEI was estimated using the FAO-Penman-Monteith model. Additionally, MODIS-derived NDVI and land surface temperature data were used to compute the TVDI index.  A comparative analysis of the three drought indices, based on their coefficient of determination with TVDI, was conducted for each year of the study period. The results showed that SPI and RDI exhibited lower correlation with soil moisture (average coefficients of determination of 0.51 and 0.54, respectively) compared to SPEI, which demonstrated a stronger correlation (average coefficient of 0.66). Therefore, given its higher agreement with soil moisture data, SPEI is recommended as a more reliable index for drought assessment in arid and semi-arid regions.