Summary

US, Iran keep up hostile rhetoric ahead of new sanctions - The US plans to announce "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran, targeting Tehran and its main trading partner China, amid ongoing hostile rhetoric. - Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have nearly stopped, with Iran threatening to attack unauthorised tankers to maintain leverage. - Iran faces severe economic damage from the conflict but vows military response; some leaders call for diplomacy while acknowledging economic strain on the country. AI generated CAIRO/WASHINGTON – The United States and Iran exchanged defiant messages ahead of the scheduled announcement of new US economic sanctions on Aug 24, which could impact the Islamic republic and Tehran’s most important trading partners, including China. As the war neared the six-month mark, 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 unauthorised oil tankers that attempt to transit the narrow waterway. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference at 2pm on Aug 24 (2am on Aug 25, Singapore time) amid promises to reveal “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran while also urging China to cooperate with Washington. China buys more than 80 per cent of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing urged diplomacy. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Aug 22 that the imminent US 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 social media platform X. US President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides “any type of lifeline to Iran”, said on Aug 21 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 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. Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Aug 20, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed. However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Aug 22. IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf’s visit to Iraq. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of eight million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That is down from more than 20 million per day before the war, or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide. US 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 had set at the start of the war, such as dismantling Iran’s nuclear programme – the state of which remains uncertain given that UN inspectors have been shut out since 2025 – and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers. Thousands have been killed, including 168 Iranian schoolchildren on the first day of the war. The US 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 Aug 21 that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with “crushing, punishing and devastating responses”. Still, Iranian 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 emphasises 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. Qalibaf, the country’s main negotiator in mediated talks with the US, acknowledged the strain on Iran’s economy in comments to Iranian and Iraqi businesspeople late on Aug 20. “No matter how much military power we have, we will not survive if people are hungry and we do not have financial turnover, economic growth and national production,” Qalibaf said, according to IRNA. REUTERS