{"id":260130,"date":"2026-08-22T12:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260130\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:05:15","slug":"us-iran-trade-threats-as-washington-prepares-new-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/260130\/","title":{"rendered":"US, Iran trade threats as Washington prepares new sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United States and Iran traded defiant messages ahead of Monday\u2019s expected announcement of new U.S. economic sanctions targeting Iran and potentially key trading partners such as China.<\/p>\n

Nearly six months into the war, the two sides were no longer exchanging fire but had made little progress toward peace talks. Meanwhile, oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have virtually halted as Tehran seeks to preserve its leverage by threatening to strike unauthorized tankers attempting to pass through the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is scheduled to hold a news conference at 2:00 p.m. EDT (6:00 p.m. GMT) Monday, when he is expected to unveil what Washington has described as \u201cthe toughest sanctions in history\u201d against Iran and urge China to cooperate with the United States.<\/p>\n

China buys more than 80% of Iran\u2019s seaborne oil exports, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has called for diplomacy and a negotiated resolution.<\/p>\n

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Saturday that the expected U.S. sanctions announcement amounted to an \u201cassertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law,\u201d he said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences for any country that provides \u201cany type of lifeline to Iran,\u201d said Friday that Washington was watching \u201cwhat happens\u201d in the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would love to make a deal, but they\u2019re not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion,\u201d Trump said of Iran.<\/p>\n

Hormuz tragedy halted<\/p>\n

While the U.S. has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up, with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels. Only four commodity ships sailed through the strait Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, according to ship-tracking data.<\/p>\n

However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran\u2019s state news agency IRNA reported Saturday.<\/p>\n

IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad\u2019s main requests during Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf\u2019s visit to Iraq.<\/p>\n

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels of oil a day through the strait. That is down from more than 20 million barrels a day before the war, or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.<\/p>\n

U.S. attacks have severely damaged Iran\u2019s economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capabilities to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.<\/p>\n


\n \"An
\n <\/a>
\n An Iranian man walks next to a wall painting featuring late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a street, Tehran, Iran, Aug. 13, 2026. (EPA Photo) <\/p>\n

Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war, such as dismantling Iran\u2019s nuclear program. The status of the program remains uncertain because U.N. inspectors have been shut out since 2025. Trump has also sought to create conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.<\/p>\n

Thousands have been killed, including 168 Iranian schoolchildren on the first day of the war. The U.S. has reported more than 750 military personnel wounded and 18 killed.<\/p>\n

Iranian economy damaged<\/p>\n

The chief of staff of Iran\u2019s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, promised Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with \u201ccrushing, punishing and devastating responses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, President Masoud Pezeshkian called for a diplomatic solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be better to end the war today, when we are powerful and have dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure and is hated in the world,\u201d Pezeshkian said, according to the ISNA news agency.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country\u2019s main negotiator in mediated talks with the U.S., acknowledged the strain on Iran\u2019s economy in comments to Iranian and Iraqi businesspeople late Thursday.<\/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 the official IRNA news agency.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n The Daily Sabah Newsletter\n <\/p>\n

\n Keep up to date with what\u2019s happening in Turkey,
\n it\u2019s region and the world.\n <\/p>\n

SIGN ME UP\n <\/p>\n

\n You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
\n This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States and Iran traded defiant messages ahead of Monday\u2019s expected announcement of new U.S. economic sanctions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[38,34,101,69,40674],"class_list":["post-260130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tehran","tag-us-war-on-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117139074644895341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260130","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=260130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}