Tehran, August 28 — Six months after the United States and Israel launched a coordinated military campaign against Iran on February 28, the conflict has shifted from open warfare to an intensified economic siege, according to the record. The opening strike killed IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour and armed forces chief of staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, while other senior commanders were slain in the weeks that followed, the filing shows.
On August 10, decrees issued in the name of Mojtaba Khamenei formalised a new military leadership, including Ahmad Vahidi as IRGC chief and Ali Abdollahi as chief of staff, sources familiar with the matter reported. Iran’s oil exports, near 1.8 million barrels a day before the war, have fallen below half a million; inflation is approaching 90 percent, with food prices more than double what they were a year ago, the data indicates.
On August 24, the Treasury launched Operation Economic Outcast, an expanded campaign aimed at severing Iran’s remaining financial links with the outside world, the filing states. Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation on February 28 and, six months on, it has not reopened, the record confirms. A leadership that once drew its authority from the visible presence of a single figure now rests, in part, on an absence, as Mojtaba Khamenei has yet to make a verified public appearance, the filing notes.
The state has also had to rebuild its command structure in the middle of the war, the source shows. Economic pressure is testing Iran where it is weakest and sharpening divisions within its leadership, the analysis states.
Neither the 25-year, $400bn partnership with China nor the strategic treaty signed with Russia in early 2025 delivered the stability Tehran sought, the filing reveals. Washington has intensified its economic campaign since suspending strikes in early August, branding the broader effort “Economic Fury,” the record indicates.
