In the American pressure campaign, a senior US Treasury official visited Europe and Middle Eastern countries this month, making clear to Iran's trading partners that they must choose between continued commerce with Tehran and their economic ties with Washington. These economic measures have deepened Iran's economic collapse and led to growing attempts by the regime to find alternative, encrypted funding channels.
In response to the economic pressure, Tehran is attempting to apply counter-leverage through shipping routes. An editorial in Kayhan, a newspaper aligned with the Iranian regime, called for halting energy trade and raising fuel prices in the US ahead of midterm elections to restrain the American administration.
The editorial stated that "continued blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and cutting off the source of oil dollars are the only way to restrain Washington's ambitions; the key to restraining the gambler from the White House is not found in negotiations, but in stopping energy trade and raising America's economic cost ahead of the elections."
The newspaper claimed that "the White House's assessments regarding Iran have again proven mistaken," adding that "Trump thought that if he couldn't subdue the Iranian people in a war of 12 days or 40 days, he could achieve the same military goal through 'negotiation fraud.' Therefore, Washington saw the Islamabad memorandum of understanding not as a step toward resolving the conflict, but as Iran's complete surrender."
The editorial's authors emphasized that "but reality on the ground has struck hard at the White House's beliefs," noting that "when Trump saw that Iran was determined to implement all its conditions, he understood he would achieve nothing from this agreement, and in an unusual move, declared it 'dead.'" The piece concluded that "you cannot restrain a gambler through groveling and showing eagerness for negotiations. You can only restrain a gambler by raising the price of war and through the language of missiles on the ground."
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian military official, Admiral Sayyari, claimed that "west of the Strait of Hormuz, the strait itself, and the Persian Gulf are under the complete control of the Revolutionary Guards' navy. East of the Strait of Hormuz and in the northern Indian Ocean are under the complete control of the Iranian army's navy." He added that "we operate with determination in the northern Sea of Oman and east of the Strait of Hormuz, and we will not allow anyone seeking to pass to do so."
Revolutionary Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebby also clarified that "the Strait of Hormuz is not only not open, but also serves as an operational zone for Revolutionary Guards naval forces against American submarines." Separately, a source close to Iran's representation in New York told the IRNA news agency that there are no plans for additional meetings with the US, and that Tehran is waiting to receive a response from the American side after conveying its positions through the Qatari mediator.
