Iran threatened trading partners over new US sanctions
Kyiv • UNN
Tehran warned neighboring countries of strikes for participating in the US economic war. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has nearly stopped.
Iran condemned plans by the United States to impose new economic sanctions and warned neighboring countries about the consequences of cooperating with Washington amid a sharp decline in shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters writes, as reported by UNN.
Details
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said that the new U.S. sanctions would effectively constitute an attempt to extend U.S. jurisdiction to independent states.
Such secondary sanctions have no basis in international law
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to hold a press conference on Iran on Monday. The day before, he threatened Tehran with "the toughest sanctions in history." Bessent also called on China to cooperate with Washington, as China purchases more than 80% of Iranian oil, according to data from analytics company Kpler for 2025. Beijing called on the parties to resolve the conflict diplomatically.
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Iran's secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said that Tehran could direct strikes against the interests of countries helping the United States. "We are telling all neighboring countries not to join the U.S. economic war, otherwise we will consider them enemies," Rezaei told state television.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has sharply declined
Against the backdrop of the confrontation, vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has nearly come to a halt. According to shipping-tracking data, only four cargo vessels passed through the strait on Thursday, and none of them were large oil tankers or gas carriers.
At the same time, Iran allowed several Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the strait after repeated requests from Baghdad. According to the state-run IRNA agency, special permission to transit was one of the main requests during Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf's visit to Iraq.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that over seven days, the U.S. military had helped ensure the passage of an average of 8 million barrels of oil per day through the strait. Before the war began, this figure exceeded 20 million barrels per day, accounting for approximately one-fifth of global oil consumption.
At the same time, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Washington was monitoring the development of the conflict and believed that Iran wanted to reach an agreement but was not ready to conclude, in his words, "the right deal." After nearly six months of war, which began on February 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, hostilities between the parties have ceased, but there are no new signs that peace talks will continue.