‘Earthquake-like way’: How Iran vows to counter US economic war? The plan may include nuclear weapons, an oil strike | Today’s news

With peace talks on hold and most traffic through the key Strait of Hormuz blocked, the US began six months of pulling the economic levers for war with Iran. This comes at a time when Iran, where one dollar is now worth 2 million Iranian rials, is already struggling with massive inflation.

On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “economic D-Day” sanctions aimed at crippling Iran’s economy and forcing the Islamic republic into submission amid a war with the US.

Declaring what is being called “Operation Economic Outcast”, Bessent said the “aim is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime”. The US almost sanctioned 60 people linked to Iranentities and containers.

Bessent also announced that countries that do not support the US economic campaign will “share the isolation” of Iran, adding that Trump is calling world leaders to ask them to stop interacting with Tehran.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called on US allies to join Washington in isolating Iran. He also warned that countries that allow their financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide support to Iran will face economic consequences.

“I am also announcing today that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide any kind of lifeline to Iran will itself face HUGE economic consequences,” Trump said.

“We did Operation Epic Fury to destroy their military. Now we have Operation Economic Outcast to destroy their economy,” former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Thursday, stressing that “no negotiations” with Iran are “going on right now.”

How Iran Plans to Face Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day’

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, warned on Thursday (August 27) that Tehran will retaliate against US economic interests if the naval blockade against Iran remains in place.

“If the blockade continues, we will target US economic interests 100 percent with intensity and force,” Rezaei said in an interview with Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV.

Last week, the spokesman of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, was quoted by Mehr news as saying that Iran has plans for every plot drawn up by the United States amid an escalating economic war.

“We have repeatedly announced that we have a scenario for every hostile action of the enemy. One of the hostile actions of the enemy is economic war. We have a scenario to repel the adverse effects of the enemy’s war and easily establish economic relations with countries; there are no worries in the economic field…,” she quoted Mohebbi.

1. Iran appeals to all countries: “Do not join the US economic war”

On Saturday (August 22), Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told state broadcaster IRIB that Iran appealed to all countries around the world, including its neighbors, not to join the US “economic war”.

“Any country involved in imposing economic restrictions on us will be considered an enemy,” he said, warning of “seismic” retaliation, according to Al Jazeera.

2. Iran Threatens to Stop All Oil Exports: ‘Not a Drop of Oil’

Rezaei also warned Iran’s neighbors that if they participate in Trump’s economic war, “not a drop of oil” will leave the Gulf region, including through “alternative export” routes from the Hormuz choke point, through which a fifth of global oil and gas exports pass in peacetime.

“If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported, not through the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere from the Persian Gulf,” Mohsen Rezaei, the leader of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote on X. “We will retaliate with similar earthquakes,” he said later in a television interview.

By alternative export routes outside of Hormuz, he probably pointed to the gate of the Báb al-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea.

The ongoing US naval blockade and Iranian restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, a key economic trade route, have already driven oil prices to record highs. They prevented countries in the region from exporting oil and gas via a route that accounted for a fifth of global supplies before the war.

Meanwhile, Iran’s proxy in Yemen, the Houthi group, recently opened a new front in the Red Sea targeting Saudi oil exports and infrastructure.

3. Iran’s Strategy: The “Three-Step Sequence”

According to Al Jazeera, Rezaei described Iran’s strategy as a three-step sequence, starting with talks with countries working with the US to de-escalate tensions.

“Of course we will negotiate with them first. We will hold talks and tell them to back off and distance themselves from the United States,” Rezaei said.

“But if they don’t act, we will attack. We will focus on the interests of this country,” he added.

4. Tehran warns of widespread strikes

Iran has also warned of widespread strikes on regional oil producers and European countries, and has even teased arming its nuclear program.

“We have been playing chess for a long time…we have also learned to play poker,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters on Monday. “Now, for a while, we play a combination of both.

According to CNN, Iran’s foreign ministry pointed to US refueling planes leaving Bulgarian territory and warned on Monday that Tehran could target the European Union country, which is also a NATO member.

“Iran has a legitimate right to target the origin and source of any act of aggression,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters on Monday, CNN reported.

He added that Tehran “has made it clear that any action deemed to support US and Israeli military aggression against Iran constitutes participation in an act of aggression under international law.”

5. Weaponizing its nuclear program

On Sunday, Rezaei issued a rare statement about the country’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. “The whole world is saying, ‘So the NPT has no effect?'” he told state radio in an interview, adding, “when America is waging a war like this, people ask: Why shouldn’t we pursue nuclear weapons ourselves?”

About half a ton of highly enriched uranium – which can be used to make a weapon – remains buried inside Iran, with US intelligence assessing that Tehran has escalated efforts to close the stash, CNN reported.

Will Iranian retaliation affect the US?

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has warned US President Donald Trump that his new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy will come at the expense of American taxpayers and businesses.

In a post on his X account on Sunday, Ghalibaf rebuked Trump and his planned initiatives and shared a video showing that economic pressure on Iran and disruption of energy markets could ultimately have consequences for the United States.

“Importing frozen meat to fix meat prices? Well, that could work,” he wrote, referring to the US president’s recent measures to control commodity prices in his country, but also asked how the Trump administration plans to address other economic problems.

“What’s your plan with the bonds?” Ghalibaf attacked Trump, mocking him as if he was going to import “frozen bond yields, frozen homebuyers and frozen wage payments.”

Stating that “a frozen foreign policy creates a frozen (stagnant) economy,” the top lawmaker warned the US president that “the only thing still moving is the Iranian boomerang coming right back in your face.”