U.S., Iran Trade Defiant Messages as New Sanctions, Hormuz Disruption Loom
The United States and Iran have exchanged defiant statements ahead of Monday's scheduled announcement of new U.S. economic sanctions, which could affect Iran and its major trading partners, including China. The conflict, now approaching six months, has seen both sides refrain from direct exchanges of fire while also avoiding formal peace negotiations.
Oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have virtually halted, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorised tankers attempting to transit the narrow waterway. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to hold a press conference on Monday, promising what he calls 'the toughest sanctions in history' on Iran, and will urge China to cooperate with Washington. According to analytics firm Kpler, China purchases more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil. Beijing has urged a diplomatic resolution.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday that the impending U.S. sanctions represent 'an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.' He added in a post on X that such secondary sanctions 'find no foundation in international law.' U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington is 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,' he said of Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz remains congested, with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels. Ship-tracking data shows that only four commodity ships sailed through the strait on Thursday, none of which were large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels per day through the strait, a sharp decline from more than 20 million barrels daily before the war—roughly one in five barrels consumed worldwide.
U.S. attacks have severely weakened Iran's economy, Navy, and Air Force, but Tehran retains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and strike regional rivals. President Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set at the start of the war, including dismantling Iran's nuclear programme—whose current status remains uncertain, as UN inspectors have been barred since 2025—and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.
The human toll has been significant, with thousands killed, including 168 Iranian school children on the first day of the war. The U.S. military has reported more than 750 personnel wounded and 18 killed. Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats with 'crushing, punishing and devastating responses.' However, President Masoud Pezeshkian has 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,' Mr. Pezeshkian said, according to the ISNA news agency. Separately, Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, acknowledged the strain on Iran's economy in comments to businesspeople late on Thursday, saying, '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 [stability].'
