As the war neared six months old, the two sides were not exchanging fire but also not pursuing peace talks. All the while, oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have virtually halted as Tehran clings to its leverage by threatening to strike any unauthorized oil tankers that attempt to transit the narrow waterway.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday amid promises to reveal "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran while also urging China to cooperate with Washington. China buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler.

Beijing urged diplomacy. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Saturday that the imminent U.S. announcement of new economic sanctions on Iran was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.

" "Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides "any type of lifeline to Iran," said on Friday that Washington was observing "what happens" in the conflict.

"They would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion," Trump said of Iran. HORMUZ TRAFFIC HALTED 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 along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait.

That's down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide. U.S. attacks have severely diminished Iran's economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.

Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran's nuclear programme - the state of which remains uncertain given that U.N. inspectors have been shut out since 2025 - and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Thousands have been killed, including 168 Iranian school children on the first day of the war. The U.S. has reported more than 750 military personnel wounded and 18 killed. IRANIAN ECONOMY DAMAGED The chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with "crushing, punishing and devastating responses.

" Still, President Masoud Pezeshkian called for a diplomatic solution. "It 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," Pezeshkian said, according to the ISNA news agency.

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country's main negotiator in mediated talks with the U.S., acknowledged the strain on Iran's economy in comments to Iranian and Iraqi businesspeople late on Thursday. "No matter how much military power we have, we won't survive if people are hungry and we don't have financial turnover, economic growth and national production," Qalibaf said, according to official news agency IRNA.

Tehran Says US Sanctions Are 'Declaration Of War' On All Nations, Urges Global Revolt

Tehran has on Saturday further addressed the new Trump-Bessent plan of long-term economic 'strangulation' and isolation, which in the US Treasury Secretary's words seeks to "collapse" the Iranian government with the "toughest sanctions in history." This of course means that Washington will have to at the same time pressure other nations that do business with Tehran to immediately cease, which could prove a tall order - given already China and Russia are clearly not going to comply.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said the new sanctions initiative amounts to a "declaration of war" on all countries and goes beyond "an illegal economic war against a single nation." Via EPA

Baghaei said: “The announcement of new sanctions represents an attempt by the United States to exert extraterritorial sovereignty over all independent UN member states.”

"No government has the right to force foreign banks, enterprises, or airports, each operating under the exclusive jurisdiction of their own sovereignty, to refrain from engaging in legitimate trade with a third country," he continued, according to Fars news agency.

The ministery added that "such secondary sanctions have no basis in international law" and "violated the fundamental principle of sovereign equality enshrined in Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the UN Charter."

Baghaei previewed and warned that a surrender to "such intimidation would lead to the total erosion of national sovereignty" and serve as "a catastrophic return to blatant, full-scale colonialism."

This is clearly an attempt to put other countries on notice, urging them not to play Washington's game. The appeal might gain a sympathetic ear especially in BRICS and Global South countries.

The statement was issued on the heels of Iran's military days ago giving a more direct warning and threat to America's regional Gulf allies. On Wednesday Ali Abdollahi, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, announced that "any assistance or facilitation provided to the aggressor US military amounts to participation in the US military operation."

"It seems unlikely that such a large number of military aircraft, particularly refuelling aircraft, could be present at regional bases without knowledge of host countries," said Abdollahi.

All of this is a mirror response to Bessent's Bush-style "you're either with us or against us" rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator, has issued some fresh words of his own. He claimed Tehran has received "numerous messages" related to new security and economic arrangements in the region as a result of US-Israeli aggression.

"The United States put the security of every single one of its allies at such risk through bullying and pure disregard for their interests for the sake of Israel that they briefly saw their entire existence on the line,” Ghalibaf stated on X.

"A homegrown, independent order is what will actually deliver peace and security," he added. Iran has for months said that various countries are seeking to strike their own separate arrangements for vessel passage through the Strait of Hormuz, something which if true gives the Islamic Republic further leverage. But the White House has been seeking to counter this narrative by feeding reports to Axios...

There are essentially two ways to interpret the administration’s claims about the volume of oil now moving through the Strait of Hormuz. The first is that Washington is significantly overstating the numbers in an effort to calm energy markets, push oil prices down, and… https://t.co/RJKJyER3nt — Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش (@citrinowicz) August 22, 2026 At the moment, Axios is claiming that millions of barrels of oil are still transiting via a 'stealth' corridor ensured by the US Navy, but there are many expressing skepticism over this. The past days have actually seen no new attacks on foreign vessels in the strait, as the plot thickens over competing narratives (given the Iranians have dismissed the Axios reporting as fabrications).

Tyler Durden Sat, 08/22/2026 - 13:25

Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following repeated requests from Baghdad through various channels, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf’s visit to Iraq.

Iraqi President Nizar Amedi said on Saturday that Iran had facilitated the passage of vessels carrying Iraqi oil through the Strait in recent days and Baghdad had discussed the export of Iraqi oil through Hormuz with Iranian officials. The issue remained complicated, he added, speaking at the Baghdad Dialogue policy conference.

Iraq significantly impacted by blockade on Strait of Hormuz Iraq has been among the countries most affected by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic in the strait remains significantly below pre-war levels, and ships continue to face Iranian attacks in the area.

Iraq produced around 4 million barrels of oil per day before the outbreak of the Iran war. Baghdad is working to expand its exports through Turkey's Ceyhan port and also to begin exporting oil through Syria's Baniyas port and Jordan's Aqaba port, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said on Friday.

- The U.S. and Iran have maintained their war of words even as kinetic strikes on one another's targets have halted in recent days. - The U.S. is planning on implementing a tough round of new sanctions against Iran. - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told CNBC that the measures would negate the need for more military action.

- An announcement on the details of the economic measures is due Monday. Iran maintained its harsh rhetoric Saturday against the U.S.' plans to impose tough new sanctions. "The United States' declaration of new economic sanctions on Iran is far more than continued unlawful 'economic warfare' against a single country," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a post on X.

"It is an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent Member State of the United Nations." U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Thursday that the Trump administration's plan to crush Iran's economy will likely negate the need for major U.

S. military operations against the Islamic Republic. Bessent vowed that the U.S. will create "the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world" against Iran. He said he will hold a news conference on Monday to "talk about exactly what we're going to do.

" In a preview of the plan, he said that the U.S. will be telling all of its allies, "You are either with us or against us." Vice President JD Vance said economic pressure is the United States' "most effective tool" against Iran. Speaking on a podcast, Vance said that the move was "a delicate dance" as both sides apply pressure to each other, but added that "what has been true over the last couple of weeks is they felt a lot more pressure than we have.

" Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told an event in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday that Muslim countries must make a plan to overcome "cruel" sanctions, according to a government summary of his comments. 'Crushing economic operation' The comments came after U.

S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. will launch what he called the "most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country" against Iran. Trump also threatened severe financial penalties on any nation that helps Tehran evade sanctions, and added that "this will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.

" While both sides have held off attacking one another's targets in recent days, shipping through the economically crucial Strait of Hormuz remains a fraction of its levels before the U.S. launched its war against Iran on Feb. 28. Negotiations to reopen the strait have stalled.

Recently observed ship traffic through Hormuz has remained low, with 10 crossings on Monday and two transits on Sunday, according to data provided by the trade intelligence firm Kpler. Oil prices were little changed Friday after Iran's president indicated that Tehran wants the war with the U.

S. to end sooner rather than later. Brent crude futures added 61 cents to close at $94.39 per barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 23 cents to $87.06. Oil prices finished the week more than 5% higher after Bessent's comments. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian described his country's memorandum of understanding with the U.

S. signed on June 17 as a victory for the Islamic Republic. Pezeshkian said "it is better to end the war today" when Iran is "in a position of power and dignity," according to the state news agency PressTV. The MOU allowed Tehran to determine how the Strait of Hormuz would be administered through negotiations with Oman and the other Gulf states.

One analyst questioned the effectiveness of the new round of economic penalties. Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets said Iran is already one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. It is not clear whether the U.

S. will go after China and Russia who are partners of Iran, Croft told CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." The question is whether more sanctions will change Iran's behavior, Croft said. Tehran appears to believe that it can outlast the U.S., she said.