CAIRO/WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Iran on Saturday denounced U.S. plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic's economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China.
After nearly six months of war since the U.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.
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's economy is already under immense pressure from sanctions.
Iran highlights missile capability and regional messaging
U.S. attacks have severely diminished Iran's 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.
Abdollahi, the armed forces chief of staff, sought to underline Iran's missile capabilities during a visit to an underground plant manufacturing ballistic missiles that was reported by state television on Saturday.
"This plant has been able, much better than in the past, to produce equipment superior both in capacities 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.
Qalibaf, who did not say which countries he was referring to, accused the U.S. of endangering the security of its allies in the region for the sake of Israel, adding that an independent, "homegrown" regional order would deliver peace and security.
Trump, meanwhile, has yet to achieve objectives he set at the start of the war such as dismantling Iran's nuclear programme - the state of which remains uncertain given that U.N. inspectors have been shut out since 2025 - and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.
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 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 emphasizes 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.
Washington signals tougher measures and China feels pressure
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran.
Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80% of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has urged diplomacy.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent U.S. announcement of new economic sanctions was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations."
"Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X.
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 "crushing, punishing and devastating responses."
Hormuz traffic remains halted amid military and political warnings
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has warned of economic consequences against any country that provides "any type of lifeline to Iran," said on Friday that Washington was observing "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.
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.
Only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, none of them large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers, ship-tracking data showed.
However, Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
IRNA said obtaining special permission for Iraqi tankers was one of Baghdad’s main requests during a visit to Iraq by Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
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's down from more than 20 million per day before the war or about one of every five barrels consumed worldwide.
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