Iran Fumes as US Prepares 'Toughest Sanctions in History' Amid Stalled War
Iran lashed out on Saturday as Washington gears up to unveil what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has called the toughest sanctions in history, a move that could further cripple the Islamic Republic's economy and squeeze its key trading partners, including China. Nearly six months after the US and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28, the guns have fallen silent, but there is no sign of peace talks on the horizon.
The Strait of Hormuz remains a ghost of its former self. Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorized tanker that dares transit the vital waterway. Iran's economy, already reeling under existing sanctions, now braces for another punishing blow.
What are the new US sanctions on Iran?
Bessent is scheduled to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. on Monday, following his threat of unprecedented economic pressure. He has also called on China, which according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler bought more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, to cooperate with Washington. Beijing, for its part, has urged diplomacy.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, dismissed the impending measures as an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations. Such secondary sanctions, he declared on X, find no foundation in international law.
On the military front, Major General Ali Abdollahi, chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, promised on Friday that Tehran would respond to enemy threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses.
Trump claims total control over the Strait of Hormuz
President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences for any country providing any type of lifeline to Iran, said Friday that Washington was watching the conflict closely. It just means that we're seeing what happens, Trump told reporters when asked whether US military options were limited.
We have total control of that entire region having to do with the Strait of Hormuz, and that means well into it, the land areas. So, they would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion, Trump added.
Hormuz traffic halted, seafarers stranded
While the US has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remains bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels. Ship-tracking data showed only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers.
Iran has asserted control over the waterway since the outbreak of war, requiring vessels to obtain permission and pay transit fees. Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas exports passed through this strategic chokepoint.
Iranian state media reported Saturday that Tehran had granted permission for some Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the strait following repeated requests from Baghdad. IRNA said Iraq had sought passage through several channels, including during a visit by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran's lead negotiator in talks with the US.
Iran and Oman have also been in talks on establishing a new route through the strait, though a deal has not been finalized. Tehran said such an arrangement would not by itself reopen the waterway unless Washington met Iran's broader demands.
How has the war affected global oil shipments?
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. 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. Yet Tehran has maintained enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals. Abdollahi sought to underline Iran's missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles, reported by state television on Saturday.
This plant has been able, much better than in the past, to produce equipment superior both in capacity and quality and in quantity, he said.
Trump's war objectives remain unmet
Trump has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war, such as dismantling Iran's nuclear program, 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.
While Iran remains defiant, President Masoud Pezeshkian has also 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, the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying on Friday.
Missing pilots and the Qatari standoff
Separately, an Iranian military official called on Qatar on Saturday to transfer Iranian pilots to a hospital on land, saying they were being held on water and were in poor physical condition, Tasnim news agency reported.
Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the Committee for the Search for Missing Persons of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, said the location where the pilots were being held was unsuitable. He called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to send an air ambulance to Qatar to expedite the return of injured and sick detainees to Iran.
Qatar has denied holding live Iranian pilots, saying they violated Qatari airspace during the war and were shot down. Doha says it has the remains of one pilot and that the others were not recovered. It said it had contacted Tehran to coordinate the handover of the remains and invited Iranian officials to review details of its search-and-rescue operations, but had received no response.
A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that the invitation remained open. Baqerzadeh on Saturday welcomed Qatar's willingness to receive a team of Iranian experts and called on Doha to cooperate with them.
As the world watches, one thing is clear: Israel and the United States stand firm against a regime that has brought nothing but chaos to the region. The Jewish state, as always, remains a beacon of resilience and strength, defending its people and its values against all who seek its destruction.