• Iran’s IRGC claims to have “decisive control” over the Strait of Hormuz and says ships must coordinate with Iranian authorities to pass.
• The White House tells Al Jazeera that the American naval blockade against Iran “remains in full force and effect”, reiterating that the Strait of Hormuz is open and fully de-mined while Washington engages in no discussions with Iran.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issues a statement declaring that any action harming “social cohesion” is forbidden, as state media releases a message from the top leader urging public unity.
• Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says US sanctions and blockades reduce the nation’s imports and exports by 25 to 35 percent, pointing out that Iran sold about 90 million barrels of oil under a June Memorandum of Understanding with the US, while demanding that Washington lift sanctions and halt Israel’s campaign against Lebanon.
• Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says the US and Israel are “powerless to counter” Iran’s missiles, which are developed using the country’s “indigenous technology”.

US military redirects 82 commercial vessels to enforce Iran blockade

In a post on X, US Central Command (CENTCOM) says its forces redirected 82 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two others to ensure compliance with the blockade, as of August 28.

These kinds of messages are considered propaganda, as they never go along with evidence containing the names of the vessels, position where these vessels where ordered to redirect and in which waters.

Iran secures oil revenue and budget targets despite maritime constraints

Iran’s Fars news agency reports that Iran has sufficient oil available for sale to fund its budget, independent of maritime transit constraints.

According to data from the Ministry of Petroleum, projected oil revenues for the budget achieved a 99 percent realization rate during the first four months of this year.

The Ministry of Petroleum previously transferred $7.5 billion in oil-related foreign exchange revenue from those initial months to Central Bank, which covers the government’s foreign exchange expenses through January, Fars said.

Iranian FM accuses Trump administration of using ‘gullible media’ to influence energy prices

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says his country’s intelligence shows there are “major efforts to game energy markets”.

“U.S. Govt elements use gullible media to influence prices for personal gain and keep POTUS [President of the United States] mired in a losing war. Israel-aligned actors also promote war with rosy assessments,” Araghchi wrote on X.

“US consumers feel the real bottom line,” he added.

Egypt, Italy urge de-escalation and protection of navigation

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani have called for reducing regional tensions and safeguarding the security and freedom of navigation, according to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry.

The ministry said the two ministers discussed the latest regional developments during a telephone call and stressed the need to avoid further escalation.

They also underlined the importance of maintaining regional security and ensuring freedom of navigation amid heightened tensions.

Tehran warns of ‘surprises’ in store

Iran’s acting defence minister says Tehran has many “surprises” in store for its enemies.

“We should not talk about the surprises now, but Iranian knowledge, the Iranian youth and the things being carried out in the defence industries will, God willing, bring good surprises,” Majid Ebn al-Reza said on Friday, as reported by Tasnim News Agency.

“Everyone, and especially the enemies, should know that they will become aware of Iran’s surprises in due time.”

Tehran has reportedly inflicted billions of dollars worth of damage on US military and intelligence sites in the Middle East since the war began six months ago.

The US is widely believed to be running critically low on missile interceptors, which are costly and time-consuming to manufacture. The White House and the Pentagon deny that there are shortages of munitions.

Iranian warning to neighbors to be ‘careful’ with new US sanctions

After Iran’s security chief Mohsen Rezaei said any future war would be “different”, Sultan Barakat, professor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, said that his comments were not meant as a deterrent.

Barakat explained they were more about “warning the neighboring countries that they need to be very careful in how they handle this new round of economic sanctions”.

“Iran is surrounded by lots of neighbors, either direct borderland or through the Caspian Sea, and many, many friends amongst those. Some of those, I think, will not at all listen to the United States and will try their best to work around this new round of sanctions,” Barakat said.

“I think this is what he [Rezaei] is trying to say, that we cannot afford to be in economic war with everybody. Of course, these American sanctions can potentially backfire in a big way on the United States, the same way the Hormuz Strait blockade did.”

Iran parliament speaker hits back at Bessent over economic pressure claims

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has hit back at US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent over his claims about Washington’s economic pressure campaign against Tehran.

Bessent said the US had helped guide 130 million barrels of oil through the region over the past 14 days and claimed Washington’s blockade and what he called “Operation Economic Outcast” would “crush” Iran’s economy.

Responding on X to Bessent’s claim that the US blockade and what he called “Operation Economic Outcast” would “crush” Iran’s economy, Ghalibaf pointed to what he described as the “real 130s”, citing more than $130bn in war costs and claiming that Jane Street Capitl, one of the largest market making firms in the US, lost more than $130m shorting oil in a single futures roll.

His reference to Jane Street appears to point to reports alleging that the trading firm was involved in US efforts to influence oil markets during the energy crisis.

He attached a screenshot of a recent column by economist Paul Krugman titled ”Scott Bessent Fails to Gaslight the Market”, which argues that Bessent’s efforts to influence long-term borrowing costs had failed, with 30-year Treasury yields rebounding after initially falling.

“Liar liar pants on fire,” Ghalibaf wrote.

US sanctions on Iran ‘will not invite surrender’

When Iran is cornered, this will not invite surrender, but will provoke friction and escalation, senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies Abas Aslani says.

“That’s why in the recent past days we’ve seen a number of regional officials visiting Tehran to mediate because this indicated their understanding of a political reality that is being ignored in Washington,” Aslani said.

“The current trajectory will not bring Iranian surrender and coming to the table with the American terms, but [Iran] will escalate in a calculated manner,” he added.

“The US is trying to maximize [the sanctions], indicating that it wants to psychologically push Iranian citizens to provoke instability inside the country, but the Iranian people have become resilient,” Aslani said.

“These days, people have another concern, which is the security and survival of the country,” he said.

The recent US pact with Venezuela to control billions of barrels of oil comes as an alarm for the Iranian people, he told Al Jazeera.

“[Venezuela] is a signal for Iranians that what the US is trying to pursue is to not bring them help, but to confiscate their assets and energy.”

Economic campaign against Iran will require ‘all the efforts of US government’

Mark Pfeifle, a former US deputy national security advisor, says the US government will have to apply intense effort to its economic campaign against Iran and its international partners for it to succeed.

“That takes all the efforts of the US government – from the Treasury to intelligence – to find out where the money is coming through,” Pfeifle told Al Jazeera, adding that Iran switches its money sources “on the hour”.

“I suppose the question isn’t whether sanctions will cause pain? They do. But whether Washington will be able to actually enforce these secondary sanctions globally,” Pfeifle added.

“The White House has to have a strategy that actually hits the pressure points that Iran has,” he continued. “If you sanction all sorts of entities, but Iran still keeps its uranium, still has a ballistic missile program, still is able to fund its deadly proxies, then it’s all for naught.”

Washington ‘hopes’ to avoid secondary sanctions on China over Iranian oil purchases

Mark Pfeifle, a former US national security official, says Washington hopes it will not have to impose secondary sanctions on Chinese buyers of Iranian crude, and is keeping the measure in reserve.

“I think that Trump and his Treasury Department will hold that in their back pocket as something they need to do if it becomes necessary,” he said.

Pfeifle said that broad measures against Beijing would be diplomatically difficult because the two economies remain intertwined, and that the aim for now was to make China more comfortable buying oil elsewhere.

Chinese refiners have bought sanctioned Iranian crude at a discount, he said, an advantage against their global competitors.

He said Beijing had shown no interest in helping Washington, and was probably assisting Tehran quietly.

“The Chinese are playing the long game. They have no problem seeing the Americans tied up in another international excursion such as this war in Iran,” he said.

Xi Jinping is due in Washington, DC, on September 24 for a summit with Trump.

US congresswoman condemns ‘illegal and immoral’ war on Iran

US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has criticised the ongoing military actions by the Trump administration against Iran, accusing the government of launching an illegal and immoral war.

“Today marks 6 months since the Trump administration launched its illegal and immoral war on the people of Iran. This act of imperial aggression has claimed thousands of innocent lives, put the US and global economies on the brink, and caused suffering for millions,” she wrote on X.

“No more war,” she added.

US weapons drain from Iran conflict sparks worries over US readiness: WSJ

The Wall Street Journal reports, citing US officials, that the heavy drain on US munitions from the war on Iran raises deep concerns over the US’s ability to deter potential threats from China and Russia.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to the Journal, oversaw the movement of munitions to the Middle East using an “orders book” under longstanding Pentagon procedures. It added that the cuts were so deep that US inventories in Europe of PAC-3 Patriot air defence interceptors and ATACMS missiles were deemed “beyond critical”.

The US and Iran mostly halted direct attacks in recent weeks, but refilling weapons stocks from countries like Japan, South Korea and Germany could take years, according to the Wall Street Journal report.

US congresswoman calls for impeachment of Pete Hegseth over Iran war

US Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari has slammed the Trump administration’s military campaign against Iran, demanding the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In a post on X, Ansari said: “In the past six months since Donald Trump started his illegal war in Iran, 120 children died after a US military strike hit their school, 18 American service members have been killed, Americans have endured record high gas costs, and Donald Trump and his sons have profited endlessly from investing in defense tech companies that received government contracts.”

“Neither Trump nor Pete Hegseth have achieved an objective in this war,” she added. “Servicemembers, children and innocent civilians have died for no reason. This war must end and Pete Hegseth must be impeached.”

Democrat senator targets Trump, oil giants for profits from Iran war

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has targeted President Trump, underlining that oil majors aligned with the president have benefited from the war on Iran.

“He is the most corrupt president ever in American history. That’s the fact,” Warren said.

“So the question becomes: What do we do about that? When Donald Trump starts a war with Iran and his oil buddies, who gave him a million dollars for his campaign. When they start making profits like crazy, then our job is to call it out and fight back. That’s what we do,” she said, in an election rally for a junior senator from Massachusetts.

The US oil giants have grabbed astronomic profits since the war started that even Trump criticised earlier this month.

CBS News reported that Trump has continued to purchase and sell stock holdings in oil and natural gas companies, according to his financial disclosure filings. The White House said Trump is not involved in his trades.

“You want to lower the price of gasoline? End the war in Iran. Just end it,” Warren said.

Trump’s goals for Iran war keep changing, says former US diplomat

Douglas Silliman, a former US ambassador to Iraq and Kuwait, says the US war on Iran risks leaving Washington with shifting objectives unless a clear strategy is found.

Silliman said that Donald Trump lacked a specific strategic goal when entering the conflict aside from toppling the government in Tehran.

“When [Trump] launched this war, I don’t really think he had a particular strategic goal he was aiming for, other than the collapse of the Iranian regime,” Silliman said.

The collapse of the regime didn’t happen, and so Trump came out with “five or six” other goals in the weeks following, Silliman said. Now they have changed again, with Trump wanting “to get the Strait of Hormuz open” and “to negotiate down and away” Iran’s nuclear program, according to Silliman.

Whether these shifts count as sharpening goals or lowering the bar depends on perspective, he explained.

“If you’re a Republican in the White House, it is sharpening the goals,” Silliman said. “If you are watching from outside as a critical analyst, it is starting without knowing what you’re doing and lowering the bar to get out of it.”

How Washington’s objectives have shifted over six months of war

At the start of the war on Iran, the Trump administration promised a powerful military campaign — and a short one. Six months later, the conflict continues.

The administration argues that this should not obscure what American military power has accomplished. Objectives from the outset were described in stark terms: destroy Iran’s missile threat, destroy Iran’s navy, eliminate its nuclear infrastructure and sever Tehran’s proxy support.

Trump declared Iran militarily defeated within weeks. But battlefield superiority has not produced an end to the war, leaving the White House with a much harder question: what now constitutes victory?

Trump now argues that the US achieved its military objectives and that securing the right political agreement is a separate matter.

Restoring secure passage through the Strait of Hormuz remains a problem. And, increasingly, the administration has defined the ultimate measure of success around one overriding issue: Iran’s nuclear program.

Now Washington is applying more pressure, this time economic. The administration says its ultimate objective has not changed, but the means of achieving it, and the time Washington appears willing to spend doing so, clearly have.

Iran war has cost Washington leverage, Gulf trust and any path to a quick end

Alan Eyre, a former senior US diplomat who helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, says it has seriously damaged US soft power in the Gulf, pushing GCC states towards strategic hedging since Trump pursued the campaign unilaterally, turning “America First” into “America Alone”.

Eyre says Washington has lost leverage on two fronts: having already used its military “stick” without forcing Iranian capitulation, and because Tehran no longer believes complying with US demands would ease pressure, seeing the real goal as regime change.

Many of Trump’s goals remain unfulfilled as Iran war passes six month mark

Despite Trump’s claim that the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities when it joined Israel’s 12-day war in June last year, in February, the US and Israel again claimed that Tehran was just weeks away from developing nuclear weapons.

Repeated strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites during the latest war have likely caused damage to the facilities, but it is believed Iran still has 440kg of highly enriched uranium, which could be used to make nuclear weapons.

The Trump administration wanted Iran to hand over the uranium stockpile and to commit to zero enrichment in the future. Iran refused that, although at one point it appeared open to the possibility of handing the stock over to a third country. Iran also insisted on retaining the capacity to develop a nuclear power program, which requires much lower levels of uranium enrichment.

Gulf states building overlapping security alliances, complementing US role

Six months into the war with Iran, it is worth taking stock of what has actually changed around the Gulf.

After Iran’s June 2025 missile strike on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the years ahead would be more perilous for the Gulf and that deeper defence cooperation and integration would eventually become unavoidable.

Earlier this month, the Gulf could no longer rely entirely on the old security toolkit and would need to build more of a security ecosystem of its own. So far, events have borne out the broad direction of both arguments.

What has become clearer over the past six months is that the war is not simply changing defense budgets or generating new security agreements. It is beginning to change how Gulf states think about security itself: who they should work with, what they should expect from their partners and what cooperation needs to look like when a crisis actually begins.

Iran parliament speaker says new regional arrangements could mark ‘new phase’

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says emerging “regional agreements and arrangements could herald the beginning of a new phase, in which Muslim neighbors rely on their own capabilities instead of foreign powers and choose cooperation and brotherhood over exhausting rivalries”, according to the IRIB news agency.

He said recent developments had shown that foreign powers were neither capable of providing lasting security for the region nor willing to do so.

Ghalibaf argued that security based on the presence and intervention of powers from outside the region was “fragile and dependent”, while security built on cooperation among regional countries could be sustainable.

He also said Shia-Sunni unity in Iran was “not a ceremonial slogan”, but a foundation of national power and a key asset for the country’s security and development.

 

Iranian FM Araghchi calls for Muslim unity against ‘demands of major powers’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Muslim countries should set aside their differences and work together to confront what he described as the excessive demands of major powers, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

“We will pursue unity within the Muslim world in all circumstances,” Araghchi said, naming Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkiye and Pakistan among countries he described as part of “the large family of the Muslim world”.

“There are differences, and we may even have serious disagreements with some Islamic countries, but we must put aside all these differences so that the Muslim world can stand against the excessive demands of major powers,” he said.

Araghchi also praised what he described as the resilience of the Iranian people during the recent conflict, saying they had stood firm for 40 days and had taught the Muslim world “a great lesson” through their resistance.

Iran stresses diplomacy and defense as inseparable tools against US-Israeli plots

The Iranian government is pledging to stand firm against US sanctions and what it calls US-Israeli “conspiracies”, saying diplomacy and defence are “complementary, coordinated and inseparable” tools for protecting the country’s national interests, security and territorial integrity.

In a statement issued on Saturday and carried by the semi-official Tasnim news agency, the Iranian government outlined its commitments to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Iranian people.

The government vowed to tackle “unjust sanctions” and improve “the livelihoods” of Iranians. It also stressed the importance of national cohesion, echoing comments made by Khamenei on Friday.

Technology, education and scientific leadership were additionally identified as key fields for Iran’s development and realizing the “second step of the Islamic revolution manifesto”.

Iran victorious as ‘enemy’ failed to achieve its war goals: Army chief

Amir Hatami, the Iranian army’s commander-in-chief, says that while the “enemy” tried to destroy the country’s drone and missile capabilities, Iran’s stockpile was still fired at them with the “utmost intensity until the last moment”, according to the Fars news agency.

“In military logic, the aggressor and aggressor sides are considered victorious when they achieve their goals, but in defensive warfare, the failure of the enemy to achieve its goals means the victory of the defender,” he added.

Europe must accept reality of strong Iran: Iranian envoy to Germany

Iran’s ambassador to Germany, Majid Nili, says Tehran will pursue dialogue and engagement based on mutual respect, and Europe must accept the reality of a strong Iran, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, Nili said his country’s resistance to US-Israeli military attacks had emphasized Iran’s decisive position, its defence capabilities, and resilience.

“Despite the existing political atmosphere and pressures, the path of dialogue and engagement based on mutual respect is still being pursued,” he said.

Nili criticised Europe’s response to the war on Iran, saying Tehran’s regional position, defence capabilities and resilience have attracted growing attention among political and expert circles.

He added that the country’s critics have now realized that Iran can not be excluded from the region’s political and security equations.

Israel will attack Iran again even if US strikes deal, energy minister says

Israel will strike Iran again if it tries to rebuild its nuclear or ballistic missile program, even if Tehran reaches an agreement with Washington, Israel’s energy minister has said.

Eli Cohen was asked about the war on Iran in an interview with the Israeli news site Ynet on Saturday.

“If Iran makes the mistake and tries to renew its nuclear program or ballistic missile program, even if there is an agreement with the United States, we will be there to attack,” he said.

Cohen said Iran would have obtained nuclear weapons had Israel not attacked, and that Israeli intelligence assessed that the joint US-Israeli strikes had set the program back by between two and four years.

“We have already proven our capabilities,” he said.

The Israelis have been obsessed with Iran's nuclear program since 2010.

However, the real obsession that the Israelis have is ensuring being the only nuclear power in the region that dates since Menachem Begin in 1968 spoke out the words:

"Make sure that no enemy has a reactor."

That was a year after they managed to have three nuclear warheads, which the Israeli general Moshe Dayan wanted to use during the six-day war against Arab countries in June 1967.

Since 30 years, it is Netanyahu's obsession, that we would translate into

"Make sure that Iran has no nuclear program."

Unity becoming ‘layer of defence’ for Iranian government

A message of unity has become a layer of defence for the Iranian government. [President Masoud] Pezeshkian called for unity, especially with neighboring countries.

He said none of us are rulers over the other. He was calling for dialogue and a less confrontational relationship with Iran’s neighbors because, apparently, the war has not ended as had been calculated.

Many people expected the war would last less than six months, but right now, at this pace, the Iranian government believes less confrontation with neighbors is a much better way to pursue its policies.

On the other hand, the supreme leader called for unity, especially domestic unity. He said social cohesion should be preserved and anything that could harm it would be prohibited.

Iran’s Basij paramilitary force calls for national unity

The Basij volunteer paramilitary force is praising government efforts to counter what it described as plots by Iran’s enemies and urged it to continue pursuing what the organization characterized as a measured approach.

Maintaining national unity required listening to people from across Iranian society and paying serious attention to what the Basij described as their legitimate demands, according to a statement marking Government Week carried by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Iran’s adversaries would seek to exploit divisions within the country to undermine social cohesion, the statement warned.

The Basij, which is one of the branches of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, also pledged to provide assistance to the government and called for greater cooperation between state institutions and the public.

Iran defence chief calls for key to defensive power – unity

Iran’s acting Defence Minister Majid Ibn Reza says the country will not stop strengthening its defensive capabilities, according to the IRIB news agency.

“Our mission at the Defence Ministry is to build power for Iran, safeguard the security of the nation and develop defensive capabilities that deter the enemy from any miscalculation or designs against this land,” he said.

Ibn Reza said national unity is “the most important part of our defensive power”, adding that if an enemy targets Iran, it will face “a united nation”.

“We will spare no effort or sacrifice to achieve a strong Iran,” he said. “We pledge that as long as this mission rests on our shoulders, we will not leave the trench.”

His remarks come amid repeated calls from senior Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, to preserve national unity and social cohesion.

Egypt’s Banque Misr says its US-sanctioned UAE branch continues providing services

Egypt’s Banque Misr says it’s reviewing a US Treasury notice restricting US dollar correspondent banking services provided by US financial institutions to the bank’s branch in the United Arab Emirates, according to the bank’s statement.

It said Banque Misr’s UAE branch continues to provide banking services to its customers in accordance with applicable rules and procedures.

The statement comes after the US Treasury said on Friday it had moved to cut off the bank’s UAE branches from dollar transactions due to its dealings with Iran.

UAE Central Bank says it will inspect Banque Misr’s Emirati branches after US sanctions

The UAE’s Central Bank has said it expects banks licensed in the UAE “not to expose the UAE’s financial system to reputational risks” or “misuse the UAE’s advanced financial infrastructure”, after the US imposed Iran-related sanctions on the Emirati branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr.

In its statement, the UAE Central Bank said it would carry out an urgent inspection of Banque Misr’s local branches, which it stressed are subject to Emirati laws and regulations.

The UAE Central Bank added that it is “studying the available options regarding the bank’s situation in the event that special measures are taken against it”.

The US sanctions on Banque Misr’s Emirati branches, part of an intensified economic campaign against Iran and its international financial partners, move to cut the bank’s branches off from dollar transactions, according to the US Treasury.

IRGC claims operation against ‘terrorist team’ in southeastern Iran

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says, following intelligence, a “terrorist team was dealt a decisive blow” during a joint operation with the Quds ground forces in Saravan, which led to one person being killed and six members and supporters being arrested, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

The report said forces discovered “20 packages of explosives and explosive accessories” from the team, including light and medium-heavy weapons and Starlink communication devices.

The IRGC claimed that the group were intending to carry out attacks on targets in the south of the province in connection with the war, alleging that the group was affiliated with Israel and the US.

Qatar, Turkiye FMs discuss efforts to reduce escalation in the Middle East via phone

Foreign ministers Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani of Qatar and Hakan Fidan of Turkiye have held a phone conversation discussing a joint effort aimed at de-escalation and enhancing security and stability in the region.

The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs said both sides discussed ways to bolster cooperation between the two countries.

During the call, the Qatari foreign minister reiterated his country’s support for all diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching a resolution that ensures the freedom of maritime navigation and creates an agreement that achieves lasting peace in the region, Qatar’s foreign ministry said.

Iran says Strait of Hormuz remains closed, no rush to reopen

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi says the Strait of Hormuz remains closed and Tehran is in no hurry to reopen it, according to Iran’s Student News Network (SNN).

“The Strait of Hormuz remains closed, and if a vessel passes through this route, it will do so with the coordination and permission of the Islamic Republic,” Gharibabadi said.

He said Iranian forces have “full oversight” of movements in the strait and rejected claims that vessels were passing through without Tehran’s coordination.

Gharibabadi said Iran and Oman had reached an understanding on arrangements for passage through the strait, but stressed that it would not automatically take effect and depended on the United States fulfilling its commitments.

“Iran has made clear through this understanding that it is ready to return to diplomacy,” he said, adding that Washington had halted implementation of its commitments and that Tehran would take reciprocal steps if the US acted.