![\"Iranian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024e249-614.jpg\"\/)
\nIranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf attended a meeting with Iraqi representatives<\/p>\n
Iran warned countries against participating in the United States’ “economic war” against the Islamic republic, saying they would be considered enemies.<\/p>\n
The United States has pushed its allies to jump aboard US President Donald Trump’s new campaign to isolate the Iranian economy, as Mr Trump’s unpopular war drags toward the six-month mark.<\/p>\n
“We declare to all countries; do not join the economic war waged by the United States,” said Mohsen Rezai, the head of Iran’s supreme national security council, on state television.<\/p>\n
“Any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy,” he added.<\/p>\n
If the countries concerned refused to “distance themselves” from the United States, Iran would “harm” their interests, he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Rezai also insisted that the Islamic republic had more cards to play in the war, claiming that “we have not yet attacked any American economic interests”.<\/p>\n
\nIranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf attended a meeting with Iraqi representatives<\/p>\n
“So far, we have only targeted military bases, but if they want to impose economic sanctions on us, the United States has oil and economic companies around Iran and elsewhere, and we will strike them,” Mr Rezai threatened.<\/p>\n
Should Mr Trump “take action, our confrontation will be like an earthquake”, he added.<\/p>\n
The US has also called on other governments to join its efforts to isolate the Iranian economy, notably China, among Iran’s top strategic partners.<\/p>\n
But China has criticised the initiative, arguing that American sanctions would not resolve the conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
One of Iran’s major trading partners, the United Arab Emirates, announced on Tuesday that it was suspending all trade and financial transactions with Iran until further notice.<\/p>\n
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2pm local time (7pm Irish time) tomorrow after threatening “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.<\/p>\n
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said yesterday that the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions was an “assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.”<\/p>\n
![\"Ships](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024e24a-614.jpg\"\/)
\nShips anchored in the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n
“Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law,” he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
President Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides “any type of lifeline to Iran,” said on Friday that the US was observing “what happens” in the conflict.<\/p>\n
“They would love to make a deal, but they’re not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion,” Mr Trump said of Iran.<\/p>\n
Hormuz traffic halted<\/p>\n
While the US has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.<\/p>\n
Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, \u200cship-tracking data showed.<\/p>\n
However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Iraq, Iran\u2019s state news agency IRNA reported yesterday.<\/p>\n
IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Iraq\u2019s main requests during a visit to Iraq by Parliament speaker \u2060Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.<\/p>\n
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait.<\/p>\n
That is down from more than \u200c20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.<\/p>\n