Iran condemns US plans to announce new sanctions

Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce new sanctions that could strain the Islamic Republic's economy and affect its major trading partners, including China.

The announcement comes nearly six months into a war with the US and Israel, with both sides still not firing but showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.

What are the new US sanctions on Iran?

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2pm EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening what he called the toughest sanctions in history on Iran.

Bessent has also urged China, which buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler, to cooperate with Washington. Beijing has urged diplomacy instead.

How has Iran responded to the sanctions threat?

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday that the imminent US announcement amounted to an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent UN member state. He said in a post on X that such secondary sanctions had no foundation in international law.

The chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with what he called crushing, punishing and devastating responses. US President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences for any country offering Iran a lifeline, said on Friday that Washington was watching 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," Trump said of Iran.

What is the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz?

The US has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, and the Strait of Hormuz remains bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels. Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, according to ship-tracking data.

Iran has, however, granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the strait after repeated requests from Baghdad, state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. IRNA said the special permission was one of Baghdad's main requests during a visit to Iraq by parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military had helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels of oil a day through the strait. That's down from more than 20 million barrels a day before the war, or roughly one in every five barrels consumed worldwide.

Does Iran still have military capability after the war?

US attacks have severely diminished Iran's economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran retains enough missile and drone capability to disrupt oil tanker traffic and strike regional rivals. Abdollahi sought to underline this capability during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles, reported by state television on Saturday. "This plant has been able, much better than in the past, to produce equipment superior both in capacity and quality and in quantity," he said.

Qalibaf, Iran's parliamentary speaker, said Tehran had received numerous messages from neighbouring countries about establishing new regional security arrangements and economic cooperation, without naming the countries involved. He accused the US of endangering the security of its regional allies for Israel's sake, arguing that an independent, homegrown regional order would deliver peace and security instead.

Has Trump achieved his war objectives in Iran?

Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set at the start of the war, including dismantling Iran's nuclear programme, the state of which remains uncertain since UN inspectors were shut out in 2025. He has also not succeeded in creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.

Thousands have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran, where 168 schoolchildren were killed on the first day of the war. The US has reported more than 750 military personnel wounded and 18 killed.

While Iran remains defiant, President Masoud Pezeshkian has also 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 emphasises that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure and is hated in the world," the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying on Friday.