Iran has warned neighbouring countries that joining Washington’s economic campaign will make them enemies of Tehran, raising the risk of wider regional confrontation as US pressure on Iran intensifies. Senior security official Mohsen Rezaei also threatened action against countries that refuse to stay out, while warning that Iran could block oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz for global oil and trade.
He said Tehran would first try to negotiate with countries that support the US economic campaign and ask them to stay out of the conflict. He said Iran would consider countries taking part in economic restrictions against Tehran to be enemies. Whoever enters it, we will consider it an enemy state,” he said. He said that if neighbouring countries joined the US campaign, Iran would not allow oil to leave through the waterway. “We will not let even a single drop of oil be exported from the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. He also said Iran had gained experience in bypassing US sanctions and continuing oil sales despite years of economic restrictions. US President Donald Trump announced a new economic campaign against Iran on Wednesday, describing it as the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country”. He said the United States would pursue economic isolation on an unprecedented scale. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the latest US pressure campaign and said previous efforts had failed.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, issued the warning in an interview with Iranian state television. But Rezaei warned that countries refusing to distance themselves from Washington could face action against their interests. “We tell all the countries surrounding us not to enter an economic war against Iran. Rezaei also linked the warning to the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for global energy shipments. The remarks come as Washington seeks to tighten pressure on Tehran and limit the financial channels supporting Iran. He argued that the new measures would meet the same fate.
