TEHRAN, Sept. 2 — Six months into the war with the United States, Iran’s economy is buckling under the weight of tightened sanctions and a naval blockade, with the country’s leaders openly acknowledging the strain. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the February 28 attack that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, issued a written statement urging the government to act.
He called for serious attention to “the chain of economic and livelihood challenges, such as inflation, unemployment, management of prices and the market for goods and services.” President Masoud Pezeshkian told state media that Iranian exports and imports have slumped nearly 35 percent because of US sanctions and the naval blockade of Iranian ports. Annual inflation hit 66 percent last month.
During a short-lived memorandum of understanding signed in June, when Washington permitted Iranian oil sales, Iran managed to sell about 90 million barrels. ## Sanctions widen beyond Iran The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Egypt’s Banque Misr for doing business with Tehran, and proposed a rule to cut off the bank’s branches in the United Arab Emirates from dollar transactions.
Egypt’s central bank said it and the foreign ministry were in contact with US officials, adding that the measure was limited to Banque Misr UAE’s US dollar transactions with correspondent banks only. Treasury officials separately issued sanctions against one entity based in Hong Kong and one person linked to Iran’s Bank Melli, according to a notice on the department’s website.
Washington has warned countries to cut business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions, though it stopped short of imposing penalties against major Iranian trade partners such as China and India. The Trump administration has billed the campaign as an “economic D-Day.” ## Strait of Hormuz remains the flashpoint Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday, stressing the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi described the talks as “creative” on Friday. Qatar and Pakistan helped broker the June memorandum of understanding that led to a brief ceasefire before disagreements over the strait caused it to unravel. US military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Trump has repeatedly said the strait is open, but the IRGC navy called such claims “an obvious lie,” reiterating that the waterway remained closed to ships without Iranian permission. Preliminary shipping data released Friday showed only seven commodity vessels transited the strait on Thursday, down from 17 a day earlier and below the 10-day average of 15.
With negotiations at an impasse and the strait’s status unresolved, the question now is whether diplomatic channels — or further economic pressure — will move first.
