IRGC options for US: bad deal or impossible war?

DEADLINE | Room for US decision-making has narrowed: Ex-official 

FPJ World Desk Dubai

IRGC on Sunday said Tehran has set a deadline for the US military to end its blockade of Iranian ports, warning of serious consequences if the demand is not met. The IRGC intelligence unit said “the room for US decision-making has narrowed”.

On X, the IRGC warned President Donald Trump he must choose between a disastrous military operation or a “bad deal” with Iran, describing the US options as untenable. “There is only one way to read this,” the post declared, “Trump must choose between an impossible military operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

TROOPS’ GRAVEYARD 

Separately, former IRGC commander and secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaee likened US forces blockading the Strait of Hormuz to “pirates”.

Rezaee threatened to turn the waterway into a “graveyard” of US aircraft carriers and troops. Rezaee warned that the US navy could soon face catastrophic losses in the waterway, one of the world’s most crucial shipping lanes. “The US is the only pirate in the world that possesses aircraft carriers,” Rezaee said on X.

“Our ability to confront pirates is no less than our ability to sink warships,” he said.

Rezaee warned the US to prepare for its carriers and forces to become a “graveyard”, invoking the memory of the wreckage of a US F-15E fighter jet that was downed in Isfahan the previous month.

Strait ‘new rules’ 

Iran released on Saturday, said it will enforce “new rules” over waters along its coastline in the Arabian Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, making them sources of “security and prosperity for the region”. According to Al Jazeera, IRGC Navy said it will exert “control over nearly 2,000km of Iran’s coastline” and make such water “a source of pride and power for the dear people of Iran, and a source of security and prosperity for the region.”

US MILITARY SURGE

US military air traffic to West Asia has surged, primarily involving transport and aerial refuelling aircraft. Flight-tra­ck­ing application Fligh­tra­d­ar24 observed an unusual rise in US military planes travelling from Europe to West Asia on Saturday. The deployment inc­ludes at least 12 C-17A Globe­master III cargo planes, each capable of carrying 77 tonnes of equipment and 100 personnel, with several departing from Germany. Four Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft were observed around Israel.

Bulker attacked

British military’s UK Maritime Trade Operations Centre said a bulk carrier near Hormuz off Sirik, Iran, has reportedly been attacked by multiple small craft. Sunday’s report said all crew were safe. It warned ships to transit with caution.

Iran flays POTUS

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei condemned Trump’s remarks that called the US seizure of Iranian vessels “piracy”. “The US president has openly described the unlawful seizure of Iranian vessels as ‘piracy’, brazenly boasting that ‘we act like pirates’,” Baghaei said on X. “This was no verbal slip. It was a direct and damning admission of the criminal nature of their actions against international maritime navigation.”