Iran vows to retaliate against countries that cooperate with fresh US sanctions

Iran has warned it will launch “earthquake‑like” retaliation against any nation that backs the United States’ new wave of secondary sanctions aimed at choking off Tehran’s remaining oil revenues. The threat follows Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s declaration of the sanctions as “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,” and comes after the United Arab Emirates—Iran’s largest Gulf trading partner—announced it would cease all trade with Tehran, a move Iran attributes to U.S. coordination. Washington’s plan is to penalise any country or entity that continues to do business with Iran, a policy that now tests whether major economies such as India, China and Russia view the threat as credible enough to alter their trade practices.

The sanctions arrive at a moment when Iran’s oil exports have already been crippled by a U.S. naval blockade that has forced shipments to Asia to near‑zero, sending crude prices to multi‑year highs. Iran’s central bank governor, Abdolnaser Hemmati, confirmed that the country’s crude exports have “virtually stopped,” leaving the Iranian economy on the brink of collapse amid hyperinflation and a plunging rial that traded at 1.992 million per dollar on the unregulated market. While the United States hopes the pressure will force Tehran to the negotiating table, China’s commerce ministry has instructed firms to ignore the warnings, invoking a domestic statute to nullify U.S. sanctions, and the Chinese foreign ministry has reiterated opposition to unilateral measures that lack an international legal basis. Earlier attempts to sanction Chinese refiners and banks were largely abandoned after President Donald Trump feared a broader trade war with Beijing.

Iranian officials have dismissed the sanctions as a sign of U.S. desperation and a violation of sovereign rights. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the measures a “claim of jurisdiction over the world,” while security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned Gulf neighbours that any participation in the U.S. campaign would halt oil flow through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, threatening alternative export routes. Legal analysts linked to Tehran argue the sanctions target global commerce rather than Iran alone, and scholars note that primary and secondary sanctions have been in place since 2018 without achieving U.S. objectives, suggesting the new “economic war” may simply mark a retreat to familiar, ineffective tactics after failed military options.

⚡ Effects Interpreter