Iran Condemns US Sanctions as Hormuz Traffic Halts
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- Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, condemned the impending US sanctions as an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations," declaring secondary sanctions have "no foundation in international law."
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to announce new sanctions at a Monday 2pm press conference, threatening "the toughest sanctions in history" and explicitly urging China — which buys over 80% of Iran's shipped oil, per Kpler data — to cooperate.
- Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, warned on state TV that Tehran would target any country's interests if it joined the US "economic war," telling "all nearby countries not to join... otherwise we will consider them as enemies."
- Strait of Hormuz oil traffic has collapsed to roughly 8 million barrels per day with US military assistance, down from over 20 million per day before the February 28 war, with only four commodity ships transiting on Thursday — none of them large crude carriers or LNG tankers.
- President Trump said Friday the US was "observing what happens," claiming Iran "would love to make a deal, but they're not ready to make the right deal," while his stated objectives — dismantling Iran's nuclear program and fomenting regime change — remain unmet after six months of war.
- President Pezeshkian called for ending the war "today, when we are powerful and have dignity," framing the conflict as Iranian victory and accusing the US of attacking "schools, hospitals and infrastructure" — a stance that makes any US-negotiated exit look like a climbdown.
Why it matters: China buys over 80% of Iran's oil and Bessent is courting its cooperation — but Tehran is simultaneously labeling any country that joins the US 'economic war' an enemy. That puts Beijing and Gulf states in a vise between Bessent's threat of 'toughest sanctions in history' and Iran's promise to retaliate against their interests.
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