Iran warns neighbors against joining US ‘economic war’ on Tehran
A top security official threatens to target interests of Gulf states that cooperate with Washington and to keep Strait of Hormuz closed
TEHRAN (MNTV) — A senior Iranian official has warned neighboring states against joining a US “economic war” on Iran, threatening to strike their interests and block oil exports from the Gulf if they cooperate with Washington, the state broadcaster IRIB reported.
“We tell all neighboring countries not to participate in the economic war with the US; otherwise, we will consider them an enemy,” said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, the country’s top security body. Iran was not seeking to widen the war, he said, “but if the countries surrounding Iran join the Americans in the economic war, we will strike their interests.”
He warned that if they did, “not a single drop of oil will leave the Persian Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz,” adding that Iran would also target alternative export routes and respond to any US action “with earthquake-like force.” These are threats by an Iranian official and could not be independently verified.
Rezaei said the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes — remains closed despite US claims otherwise, and would not reopen until Washington “corrects its behavior.”
Iran, which he said controls more than half the Gulf coastline, has effectively blockaded the strait since the war began, though it has recently allowed selected tankers, including some Iraqi vessels, to pass.
The warning followed President Donald Trump’s announcement on Aug. 19 of what he called the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” — part of a campaign the US has branded Operation Economic Fury — vowing “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale” and “tremendous economic consequences” for any nation that gives Iran “any type of lifeline.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said countries were “either with us or against us”; the United Arab Emirates has moved to cut trade with Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the US measures as an assertion of “extraterritorial sovereignty” over UN member states. Oil prices rose to near $94 a barrel amid the standoff.
The escalation has deepened a deadlock since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding, signed in Islamabad in June through Pakistani and Qatari mediation, halted the war that began Feb. 28. Talks have since stalled over the deal’s implementation and the reopening of Hormuz, and Iran’s military has warned it is ready to respond to any new attack.
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