“The end result would be the complete erosion of sovereignty as the foundational basis of the UN-based inter-State system, and a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism.” That was Iran’s answer on Saturday, 22 August 2026, to the sanctions Washington says are coming, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei posted the statement on X. He called the US announcement “an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty” against United Nations member states. No state, he said, can force foreign banks, enterprises or airports to give up trade with Iran.
What Washington has said
The row began on Wednesday, when President Donald Trump announced the “most crushing economic operation” yet against Iran. Any country whose institutions deal with Tehran, he said, would face “tremendous economic consequences.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed him up on Thursday. The new sanctions regime would “collapse” Iran, he said, and other countries are “either with us or against us.”
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the measures as “bound to fail.” Iranian state media pointed out that Tehran has lived under US sanctions for decades. Araghchi posted on X next to a screenshot of an earlier tweet from former President Barack Obama about 2012 sanctions. “We have seen this movie before,” he wrote. “Same bull. Different bullies.”
Talks stalled, Hormuz nearly shut
The exchange comes as peace talks with Tehran have sputtered out. The US Navy is still blockading Iran’s ports, and oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have all but stopped.
Trump told reporters on Friday that his government is “seeing 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,” he said.
Ship-tracking data showed only four commodity ships sailed through the strait on Thursday, and none were large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers. Thousands of seafarers remain stranded on hundreds of vessels.
There was one exception. Iran has allowed several Iraqi oil tankers through after repeated requests from Baghdad, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. IRNA said the special permission was one of Baghdad’s main requests during a visit to Iraq by Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
