US Sanctions Iran's Banks as Economy Shrinks 35% — SkimNews
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- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media that exports and imports slumped nearly 35% due to U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade, though Iran sold about 90 million barrels of oil during the brief June U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding that permitted sales.
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, unseen publicly since the February 28 attack that killed his father Ali Khamenei, called on the government to address inflation, unemployment, prices, and the goods/services market as annual inflation hit 66% last month.
- The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Egypt's Banque Misr for doing business with Tehran — proposing a rule to cut the bank's UAE branches off from dollar transactions — and separately sanctioned one Hong Kong-based entity and one person linked to Iran's Bank Melli.
- Washington warned countries to cut ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions but stopped short of penalizing major trade partners like China and India, citing potential repercussions for the U.S. and global economies.
- The U.S. military said American forces cleared Iranian IRGC sea mines from the Strait of Hormuz and Trump claimed the waterway is open — but Iran's IRGC navy called those claims "an obvious lie," and shipping data showed only seven commodity vessels transited Thursday, down from 17 the prior day and below the 10-day average of 15.
- Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday, stressing a return to pre-war open shipping through Hormuz; Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called the talks "creative," and Qatar had helped broker the June memorandum of understanding that briefly paused the war.
Why it matters: The U.S. is choosing targeted financial pressure over broad secondary sanctions — leaving China and India untouched while sanctioning specific conduits like Banque Misr and Bank Melli — which limits global economic fallout but prolongs Iran's hardship, where 66% inflation and a 35% trade collapse are already feeding internal calls for economic reform from the new Supreme Leader.
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