CENTCOM says 49 commercial vessels redirected under Iran blockade

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards intelligence organization said on Sunday that President Donald Trump’s room for maneuver had narrowed amid pressure over the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and negotiations.

“There is only one way to read this: Trump must choose between an impossible military operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the IRGC intelligence organization said in a post on X.

It cited what it called Iran’s deadline to the Pentagon over the blockade, a shift in tone by China, Russia and Europe against Washington, Trump’s “passive” letter to Congress and the acceptance of Iran’s negotiating conditions.

“The decision-making space for the United States has narrowed,” it added.

An advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned US President Donald Trump on Sunday against threatening Iran through the Strait of Hormuz, calling the waterway a “world lifeline.”

Ali Akbar Velayati said Trump had threatened Iran with famine but did not understand the political and economic weight of the Strait of Hormuz.

He said global food security and fertilizer supply chains were tied to Iran’s position in the waterway.

“Mr. Trump, the world of politics is not the domain of movies like Jack Sparrow,” Velayati wrote on X. “Whoever plays with the world lifeline will put himself in stalemate,” he added.

Iran’s vice president for science said on Sunday that about 32 research and scientific centers were hit during US-Israeli strikes.

Hossein Afshin said physical damage to industry, excluding oil and gas, had been estimated at about $6 billion.

He said Iran’s research and university infrastructure had sustained around $300 million in damage.

He added that nearly 100 of Iran’s roughly 11,000 knowledge-based companies, or about 1%, were damaged and suffered about $25 million in losses.

Government offices and institutions in Tehran were placed on heightened alert on Saturday, with many staff ordered to remain on “full alert” amid security concerns, Tehran-based Iranian news website Rouydad24 reported on Sunday.

The outlet said employees at Iran’s state broadcaster were told to collect personal belongings and prepare for possible evacuation if an emergency was declared.

Rouydad24 also reported that Tehran Municipality offices were closed on Saturday after an urgent remote-work order was issued across the capital’s 22 districts.

Several Iranian dual nationals said they had been approached by Iranian intelligence services in the past year in the UK and while traveling in Europe, Turkey and Iran, The Sunday Times reported citing interviews conducted on condition of anonymity.

The approaches involved Iran’s ministry of intelligence and security and the intelligence arm of the IRGC, the report said.

Some of those interviewed said they had been threatened, while others said they were offered money to gather information in the UK or, in some cases, to carry out violent acts against targets on British soil, the report added.