Newsman: The new head of Iran’s top security body warned Sunday that Tehran will see any country’s support for new U.S. economic measures against the Islamic Republic as an “act of war,” while Iran’s president defended a memorandum of understanding with the United States as the best way out of the stalled conflict.
Iran’s new security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said in an interview on state TV over the weekend that Iran would retaliate in a “seismic manner” to Trump’s latest attempt at economic warfare. Rezaei, a hard-liner who used to lead Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, is now a military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
Rezaei warned Gulf states that any countries partnering in these new economic restrictions would be considered an enemy of — and a target for — Iran.
Rezaei said Iran would retaliate by further targeting oil tankers that are transiting the Persian Gulf, warning that “not even a single drop of oil will leave the region.”
The hard-line leader of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, issued his latest warning on X, with the comments quickly shared by Iranian state media.
“If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,” he had told the state broadcaster in an interview that aired late Saturday. He said Iran would target other oil-shipping routes from the Persian Gulf — alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. already has extensive sanctions on Iran, some stretching back almost 50 years. And as recently as June, the U.S. had imposed further penalties for entities that helped Iran evade existing financial restrictions. Months long U.S. naval blockade of Iran, which has cut off most goods to Iran from the outside world.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday is expected to announce the new measures after the U.S. vowed to impose an “unprecedented” level of economic warfare and isolation on a country that has lived for decades under sanctions.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier Sunday said the memorandum of understanding signed in mid-June was the best way to move beyond a situation of “neither war nor peace,” adding that Tehran can’t attract investment nearly six months after the war began.
“There is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation,” Pezeshkian said in a speech published by state-run IRNA. “The supreme leader sets the policies, and we will follow that path.”
