{"id":259308,"date":"2026-08-21T16:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/259308\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T16:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T16:50:29","slug":"iran-vows-devastating-response-as-u-s-threatens-to-topple-regime-with-tougher-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/259308\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran vows \u2018devastating\u2019 response as U.S. threatens to topple regime with tougher sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A woman holds an Iranian flag as part of a pro-government campaign in downtown Tehran, Aug. 17.Vahid Salemi\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Iran said on Friday that its response to any new U.S. threats would be \u201cdevastating\u201d after Washington pledged to impose the toughest financial penalties in history with the aim of toppling the Iranian leadership.<\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury chief Scott Bessent said he would give details on Monday of the planned sanctions, which follow a warning from President Donald Trump of economic consequences against any country that provided \u201cany type of lifeline to Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chief of staff of Iran\u2019s Armed Forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, said the Islamic Republic\u2019s reaction would be broad and decisive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith preparedness across land, sea, air, air defence and cyberspace, Iran\u2019s armed forces will respond to the enemy\u2019s new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses,\u201d Abdollahi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country\u2019s main negotiator in mediated talks with the United States, said Washington appeared to have concluded it could not prevail in its direct military confrontation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them,\u201d he said in neighbouring Iraq, accusing the U.S. and Israel of resorting to what he said was economic and \u201ccognitive\u201d warfare.<\/p>\n

But, speaking to Iranian and Iraqi business people late on Thursday, Qalibaf acknowledged the strain on Iran\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how much military power we have, we won\u2019t survive if people are hungry and we don\u2019t have financial turnover, economic growth and national production,\u201d Qalibaf said, according to official news agency IRNA.<\/p>\n

Bessent says measures should not drive up oil priceOpen this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury chief Scott Bessent said he would give details on Monday of the planned sanctions.Kevin Lamarque\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Oil prices edged lower on Friday but were on track for a second weekly gain after rising on Thursday following the new U.S. sanctions threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure why oil has popped up on this,\u201d Bessent told CNBC. \u201cIf we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,\u201d he said, using a term referring to military force.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people have been killed in the war, which has drawn in Gulf nations and raised global fuel prices as Iran has attacked shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before February carried about a fifth of all traded oil.<\/p>\n

Just seven commodity ships sailed along the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, half the previous day\u2019s tally, data from shiptracker Kpler showed, compared with more than 130 a day before the war.<\/p>\n

Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: dismantling Iran\u2019s nuclear program, curbing its ability to attack regional rivals and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.<\/p>\n

The U.S. and Iran have twice announced ceasefire deals, in April and June, aiming to restore the free flow of ships through Hormuz on a path toward ending the nearly six-month-old conflict, but both quickly crumbled.<\/p>\n

Bessent told CNBC he would \u201ctalk about exactly what we\u2019re going to do\u201d on Iran at a press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to collapse this regime. It is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision,\u201d he said, describing a naval blockade reimposed on Iran in July and the \u201ctoughest sanctions in history\u201d as a \u201cone-two punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has weathered near-continuous economic sanctions for nearly 50 years, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, but its people are suffering high inflation, a weakening currency and energy shortages along with damaged infrastructure.<\/p>\n

U.S. warns Iran of \u2018toughest sanctions in history\u2019 as oil prices hit three-week high<\/a><\/p>\n

Some Iranians interviewed by Reuters have said more economic punishment could increase hardship, weaken the clerical establishment and prompt unrest, although there has been no sign of that since a deadly crackdown on protests in January.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was defiant in a post on X that referenced previous U.S. efforts to apply economic pressure to Iran and Trump\u2019s comments at the start of the war.<\/p>\n

\u201c14 years ago: \u2019Most crippling sanctions in history.\u2019 Failed. 8 years ago: \u2019Maximum pressure.\u2019 Failed. 5 months ago: \u2019Unconditional surrender.\u2019 Failed. Today: \u2019Most crushing economic operation ever.\u2019 Bound to fail. We have seen this movie before. Same bull. Different bullies,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n

Latest U.S. blockade starts reducing oil flows to China<\/p>\n

At home, Trump is under pressure to end the war, with high fuel prices dragging down his approval ratings and potentially threatening his Republican Party\u2019s control of Congress in midterm elections in November.<\/p>\n

Bessent said China got half its energy from the Gulf so it would make sense for them to \u201cget with the program.\u201d <\/p>\n

China buys more than 80 per cent of Iran\u2019s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler, but further U.S. economic warfare with Beijing, which has eased earlier restrictions on exports of its vital rare-earth minerals, risks retaliation.<\/p>\n

Offers of Iranian crude to Chinese buyers have already declined since the U.S. reimposed its blockade on Iranian ports in mid-July, trade sources told Reuters.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s embassy in Washington said \u201csanctions and pressure do not help resolve the problem,\u201d calling for diplomatic means.<\/p>\n

Tightening sanctions entails other risks, especially to U.S. allies in the Gulf, some of whose energy facilities and the desalination plants they depend on for drinking water have come under Iranian attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A woman holds an Iranian flag as part of a pro-government campaign in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[950,936,951,158,928,952,949,927,942,943,939,929,926,147,948,703,941,934,963,930,931,394,34,937,938,674,953,345,958,959,961,956,960,954,957,932,945,946,81,944,955,935,947,462,940,933,82,962],"class_list":["post-259308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-iran","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}