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Iran on Saturday denounced U.S. plans to announce new sanctions that \u200bcould put further strain on the Islamic Republic\u2019s economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners, including China.<\/strong><\/p>\n After nearly six months of war since the \u200cU.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on February 28, the sides are not firing at each other but also showing no sign of pursuing peace talks.<\/p>\n Oil shipments are at a virtual standstill in the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran threatening to strike any unauthorized oil tankers that try to transit the vital waterway, and Iran\u2019s economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions.<\/p>\n U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at \u200b2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening \u201cthe toughest sanctions in history\u201d on Iran.<\/p>\n Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran\u2019s shipped \u200boil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has urged diplomacy.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent U.S. announcement \u2060of new economic sanctions was an \u201cassertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSuch secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law,\u201d he said in a post on \u200bX.<\/p>\n The chief of staff of Iran\u2019s armed forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, promised on Friday that Iran would respond to enemy threats militarily with \u201ccrushing, punishing and devastating responses.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump, who has warned \u200bof economic consequences against any country that provides \u201cany type of lifeline to Iran,\u201d said on Friday that Washington was observing \u201cwhat happens\u201d in the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would love to make a deal, but they\u2019re not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion,\u201d Trump said of Iran.<\/p>\n HORMUZ TRAFFIC HALTED<\/p>\n While the U.S. has effectively blockaded Iranian vessels in their ports, the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up with thousands of seafarers stranded on hundreds of vessels.<\/p>\n Only four commodity \u200bships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.<\/p>\n However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass \u200bthrough the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran\u2019s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.<\/p>\n IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad\u2019s main requests during a visit to Iraq by Parliament \u200cspeaker Mohammad \u2060Baqer Qalibaf.<\/p>\n U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the U.S. military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait. That\u2019s down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.<\/p>\n U.S. attacks have severely diminished Iran\u2019s economy and devastated its navy and air force, but Tehran maintains enough missile and drone capability to impede oil tanker traffic and attack regional rivals.<\/p>\n Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, sought to underline Iran\u2019s missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles that \u200bwas reported by state television on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cThis plant has \u200bbeen able, much better than in the \u2060past, to produce equipment superior both in capacities and quality and in quantity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Qalibaf, Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, said Tehran had received \u201cnumerous messages\u201d from neighbouring countries about establishing new regional security arrangements and economic cooperation.<\/p>\n Qalibaf, who did not say which countries he was referring to, accused the U.S. of \u200bendangering the security of its allies in the region for the sake of Israel, adding that an independent, \u201chomegrown\u201d regional order would deliver peace \u200band security.<\/p>\n Trump, meanwhile, has yet \u2060to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran\u2019s nuclear programme \u2013 the state of which remains uncertain given that U.N. inspectors have been shut out since 2025 \u2013 and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.<\/p>\n Thousands have been killed, mainly in Iran, where 168 Iranian school children were killed on the first day of the war. The U.S. has reported more than 750 \u2060military personnel wounded \u200band 18 killed.<\/p>\n While Iran remains defiant, President Masoud Pezeshkian has also called for a diplomatic solution.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be better \u200bto end the war today, when we are powerful and have dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure and is hated in the world,\u201d the ISNA \u200bnews agency quoted him as saying on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n