Iran urges countries not to enforce new US sanctions

“If the blockade continues, we will target US economic interests 100 percent, with intensity and force,” Rezaei told Lebanon’s Al-Manar television.

Rezaei also warned Israel against resuming the war, saying any new conflict would be different from previous rounds.

“We will send Netanyahu to hell,” he said, adding that the Israeli prime minister had made “major mistakes” that had brought Israel closer to its end.

Tehran has taken a tougher stance since a ceasefire agreed in June failed to produce a broader agreement and the subsequent MoU expired, despite mounting economic problems and Washington’s recent announcement of an “economic D-Day” against Iran.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is preparing to press G20 finance ministers next week to comply with Washington’s sanctions on Iran, according to AFP.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Tehran was “begging to make a deal,” declaring that “Iran Is a Failing Nation!” in a social media post.

Rezaei shrugged off Trump’s Operation Economic Fury, claiming Iran had already “broken the maritime blockade” during the ceasefire and exported between 70 million and 80 million barrels of oil.

He said oil sales had returned to pre-sanctions levels and that Tehran had established new export routes that were gradually expanding.

The US military rejected that claim hours later.

“Iran has exported zero oil from its shores since we resumed the naval blockade in mid-July,” US Central Command said, adding that other countries in the region had exported 750 million barrels of oil from the Persian Gulf during the same period.

Rezaei also said Iran and Oman had agreed on a shipping corridor running partly through Omani and partly through Iranian waters.

Commercial vessels would be allowed through a designated central channel in the Strait of Hormuz if the United States met Iran’s conditions, he said.

Rezaei added that mediators had asked Tehran to set out its conditions for reopening the strait and that Iran was preparing a list of demands, including an end to the war in the region.

The latest US pressure goes beyond broad restrictions on oil exports, increasingly targeting middlemen, front companies, financial channels and other mechanisms Tehran has relied on to keep foreign currency and goods flowing under sanctions.

Ehsan Movahedian, an international affairs analyst, described the approach as an attempt to choke Iran’s access to foreign currency, fuel inflation and deepen internal economic instability.

Other analysts writing in the moderate outlets Fararu and Donya-ye Eghtesad argue that with those traditional workarounds under growing pressure and no comprehensive alternative in place, Tehran may increasingly be forced to turn inward: tightening budgets, reducing subsidies, rationing scarce resources and curbing consumption.

But austerity presents the government with its own political dilemma. Measures that conserve resources and help Iran withstand sanctions would also transfer more of the cost of the confrontation to a population already struggling with inflation and utility shortages.

Iranian governments have long been wary of abruptly reducing subsidies for precisely that reason. A sudden increase in gasoline prices in November 2019 triggered nationwide protests that were met with a deadly crackdown, leaving authorities acutely aware of the political risks attached to measures that sharply increase household costs.

President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have made clear that economic pressure will remain central to Washington’s Iran strategy.

In Tehran, the campaign is broadly perceived as an attempt to force capitulation rather than genuine negotiations, even though President Masoud Pezeshkian has repeatedly said the two sides must eventually resolve their differences through talks.

Former diplomats Fereydoun Majlesi and Jalal Sadatian describe the current trajectory of Iran-US relations as one of strategic ambiguity and economic attrition, with neither an imminent diplomatic breakthrough nor a clear route out of the confrontation.

That uncertainty has sharpened disagreement over whether diplomacy can relieve the economic pressure before Tehran is forced to impose still greater costs at home.

Former ambassador Mohsen Pakaeen argued that the recent stream of regional mediators visiting Tehran was focused on the wrong capital.

The obstacle, he said, was Washington’s insistence on Iranian capitulation without offering credible concessions, meaning mediators seeking a breakthrough should concentrate their efforts on the United States.

Hardline voices, including the editor of the ultraconservative daily Kayhan, reject talks under economic pressure and push for a more confrontational posture capable of raising the costs for the United States and its regional partners.

The disagreement leaves Tehran confronting two related calculations: whether it can economically outlast Washington’s pressure campaign, and how much domestic hardship it can impose in doing so.

For advocates of greater economic resilience, austerity could preserve scarce government resources while buying Tehran time. But analysts also warn that the same measures could weaken domestic stability and ultimately undermine the negotiating position they are intended to protect.

China offers Iran its most important external economic lifeline, but also an uncertain one.

Majlesi and other observers argue that intensified US enforcement against buyers of Iranian goods increasingly overlaps with Washington’s wider economic competition with Beijing.

China remains crucial to Iranian trade, but Tehran cannot determine how much economic or political risk Beijing will ultimately accept on its behalf.

That leaves Iran with few easy alternatives. Informal trading networks can soften sanctions, regional diplomacy may eventually produce negotiations and austerity can stretch limited resources, but none provides a clear exit from a prolonged economic confrontation.

Austerity may therefore buy Tehran time, but not necessarily leverage. But the question is not only how long Iran’s economy can withstand Washington’s pressure, but how much more pressure its government believes Iranian society can bear.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani arrived on Thursday, following Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Tuesday and Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir on Monday, as regional powers seek to create a path toward de-escalation and renewed negotiations.

Al Thani’s visit, his first to Iran since the war began in late February, came after days of diplomacy focused partly on finding an arrangement over Hormuz that could provide an opening for broader talks.

He met President Masoud Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Parliament Speaker and senior negotiator Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and security chief Mohsen Rezaei.

The messages he received reflected the competing currents shaping Tehran’s response to the diplomatic push.

Pezeshkian praised efforts by Qatar, Pakistan, Oman and other countries to promote peace and security in the region. He also pointed to factions in the United States, Israel and Iran that he said were trying to prevent agreements from taking shape, urging US officials to ignore voices opposed to a return to stability.

Ghalibaf told Al Thani that an economic blockade of Iran would be ineffective and said Washington should implement commitments made under the Islamabad memorandum.

Rezaei struck a more confrontational tone, warning that Iran would target US military and economic interests if Washington sought to “commit mischief” against Iran. He reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed unless the United States met Tehran’s conditions.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Al Thani discussed regional developments, efforts to reduce tensions and creating conditions for the resumption of dialogue between Tehran and Washington.

Mediators push for talks

The flurry of diplomatic activity has fueled speculation in Iranian media that Tehran and Washington could return to negotiations, although there is little indication that a breakthrough is imminent.

Iran Nuances, an English-language outlet apparently linked to Iran’s Foreign Ministry, argued that the succession of visits reflected concern among regional states that intensified economic pressure could produce wider instability rather than force Iran to capitulate.

The Iranian news agency ILNA was more cautious. In a commentary headlined “Can Qatar Unlock the Negotiations?”, it said the gap between Tehran and Washington remained too wide for Qatar’s mediation to be certain of success.

“If Iran considers lifting economic pressure and ending the blockade a precondition for any opening, while the United States continues to insist on increasing pressure, even activating Qatar’s mediation channels will not necessarily lead to the resumption of negotiations,” it said.

ILNA suggested that Doha could instead begin by mediating over de-escalation and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, potentially creating an opening for wider negotiations.

Economic daily Donya-ye Eqtesad described the succession of regional visits as a form of “multi-layered diplomacy” aimed at developing a phased roadmap involving Iran, the United States and regional mediators, with maritime arrangements providing an initial route toward de-escalation.

But optimism in parts of the Iranian media contrasts sharply with Washington’s public posture.

US President Donald Trump told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that he was “not in a hurry” to resume negotiations with Iran and had set no timetable for ending the war. He said economic pressure and military action were proving effective.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that there were currently no negotiations between the United States and Iran and that all options remained on the table.

Fate of missing Iranian pilots

Al Thani’s visit also brought renewed attention in Tehran to the fate of Iranian pilots who went missing in March after their Sukhoi fighter jets were shot down over Qatar.

Iranian officials say three pilots survived after ejecting from their aircraft, were captured by Qatari forces and have been held there since.

Qatar strongly rejects that account. Doha says its search-and-rescue teams found the remains of one pilot and handed them to Iran, but that it has no information about the fate of the others.

Iran has requested that an Iranian Air Force expert team and the International Committee of the Red Cross become involved in determining their fate.

Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said Wednesday that if Qatar genuinely did not know what had happened to the pilots, it should make greater efforts to establish their whereabouts.

Fada-Hossein Maleki, a member of parliament’s National Security Commission, said Thursday that the lack of clarity over the pilots remained a source of tension with Doha and warned that any evidence they had been mistreated would affect bilateral relations.

Hardliners also seized on the issue during Al Thani’s visit, accusing Iranian officials of failing to press Qatar publicly over the pilots’ fate.

Simin Fahandej told Iran International that pressure on the community had intensified following nationwide protests in January, fitting what she described as a longstanding pattern in which Bahá’ís are targeted during periods of crisis.

“Every single time that there has been a crisis in Iran, the Baha'i community is the first to be scapegoated,” Fahandej said, adding that confiscation of Bahá’í property had been a feature of persecution since the 1979 revolution.

Fahandej said hundreds of cases of persecution had been recorded since January across more than six provinces, while prosecutions of Bahá’ís had doubled from the previous year.

“These arrests and imprisonment of Baha'is isn't an incident,” she said. “It's a nationwide state-led campaign of persecution.”

Cash, gold, instruments

Thirteen United Nations experts earlier this month also warned of an increase in persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran, including allegations of torture and enforced disappearance, and said 57 members of the community were detained or imprisoned.

The warnings come amid a series of raids on Bahá’í families in the central city of Isfahan in which security forces seized cash, gold, household belongings, vehicles, musical instruments and equipment used by families to make a living.

More than 20 security agents simultaneously raided three homes on Monday belonging to Amin Tabyanifard, his mother Bahariyeh Askarinasab and his son Nima Tabyanifard, a source familiar with the matter told Iran International.

The source said plainclothes agents searched the properties from around 8 a.m. until about 1 p.m.

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Askarinasab lives in a separate unit in the same building as Amin Tabyanifard, while Nima Tabyanifard lives in another neighborhood of Isfahan.

Agents searched the family’s musical-instrument workshop and seized its tools, equipment and specialized machinery, along with several valuable handmade instruments.

They also seized cash, gold, electronics, household belongings and numerous musical instruments. Authorities later sealed the family’s music and musical-instrument store.

The source said agents in one of the raids used violence, beat people present and made threats.

Nima Tabyanifard was ordered to report to the Isfahan Intelligence Department, while other members of the family received summonses to appear before a court located at Isfahan’s Dastgerd Prison.

Fahandej said some recent arrests and confiscations in other cases had been carried out without warrants.

“These arrests and confiscations, I have to make clear, have taken place entirely illegally,” she said. “They did not have warrants for confiscation nor arrest.”

She said security personnel had in some cases climbed over walls to enter Bahá’í homes.

“If this is not theft and stealing people's property, I don't know what is,” Fahandej said.

She described one case in which a parent was arrested in front of a two-year-old child, and another in which authorities deployed 14 guards, five vehicles and a representative of the prosecutor general to arrest one woman.

‘You didn’t learn your lesson’

In a separate Isfahan case, filmmaker and journalist Sepehr Atefi said security forces raided his parents’ home for the second time in several months.

Atefi wrote on X that eight male agents and one female agent spent more than six hours searching the property and his father’s workplace, including the soil in flowerpots and a bag of rice.

He said agents packed household possessions, including a television, vacuum cleaner and toolbox, along with gold, valuables, communications devices and children’s toys, into his parents’ own suitcases and bags before taking them away in a pickup truck. The family’s car was also seized, Atefi said.

Atefi told Iran International that the repeated raids were taking a psychological and practical toll on his parents.

“This incident and its recurrence can mentally exhaust them,” he said. “Confiscating their IDs and mobile phones can trap them in administrative bureaucracy for days and disrupt their daily lives.”

When his mother objected to the confiscations, agents told her: “These are illicit possessions,” and: “You didn’t learn your lesson the first time,” according to Atefi.

He interpreted the remark as meaning that the family had failed to change its religion and said they were being targeted because they were Bahá’ís.

Fahandej said such language made what she described as the discriminatory nature of the raids explicit.

“There is no other basis for any of these confiscations, arrests, raids ... other than the fact that they're Baha'i,” she said.

She said court documents in some prosecutions had also explicitly cited membership in the Bahá’í community.

“With the misuse of their state authority, they essentially steal Baha'is' properties with complete impunity,” Fahandej said.

Livelihoods targeted

Fahandej said the economic impact of the seizures was particularly severe because Bahá’ís already face restrictions on higher education and public employment.

“Baha'is in Iran are banned from universities,” she said. “Then they're also banned from public employment, so they can't be doctors or lawyers, teachers, and any form of public employment.”

That leaves many members of the community dependent on small businesses and home-based work, she said, making the confiscation of tools, equipment and businesses particularly damaging.

“The basic and modest livelihoods that they would be able to build through these small businesses, sometimes home businesses, are also confiscated.”

Fahandej said authorities had increasingly used Article 49 of Iran’s Constitution, which allows the state to confiscate wealth deemed to have been acquired through illicit means, to seize Bahá’í property under what she described as vague pretexts.

She also pointed to large bail demands as another form of economic pressure.

“Some of the bail amounts that we see actually becomes the equivalent of working for a hundred years in Iran,” she said, calling it “quite a devastating form of persecution.”

Property confiscation has a long history in the Islamic Republic’s treatment of Bahá’ís. Fahandej said community and individual properties were seized in the early years after the 1979 revolution, while Bahá’í institutions were banned from 1983.

Crackdown widens

Recent cases have extended beyond property seizures.

Fahandej pointed to Peyvand Naimi and Venus Hosseini-Nejad, two Bahá’ís arrested in Kerman in southeastern Iran in January whose coerced confessions were later broadcast on state television. The Bahá’í International Community said Naimi was tortured and subjected to mock hangings in detention.

“We saw the forced live confessions of two Baha'is on television, essentially to justify persecution against them and the entire community,” Fahandej said.

A Revolutionary Court in the northern city of Sari has also sentenced 12 Bahá’ís to prison terms and restrictions on their social rights. Six other Bahá’ís were recently arrested in Sari and Karaj, while a Bahá’í student at Islamic Azad University in Birjand was expelled and barred from continuing his studies because of his faith.

Unofficial estimates put Iran’s Bahá’í population at more than 300,000. The Bahá’í faith is not recognized under the Islamic Republic’s constitution, which recognizes Islam as well as Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

Human Rights Activists in Iran said Bahá’ís accounted for about 62 percent of reported violations of religious minority rights in 2025.

Fahandej said the latest escalation was taking place as Iranians were already struggling with severe economic pressures.

“It's heartbreaking that amid an already difficult economic crisis in Iran, that the state-sponsored attack against the Baha'is is now sweeping the community, as they, together with all other Iranians, are already suffering,” she said.

The source said Abolhassani was only filming a supermarket fire when she was arrested on the evening of January 8. Branch 5 of Isfahan’s Revolutionary Court nevertheless sentenced her to death on charges of participating in setting fire to the store.

Abolhassani, who worked as a nail technician, was transferred following her arrest to Dowlatabad Prison in Isfahan, where she has been held for more than seven months.

Her case was referred to Iran’s Supreme Court following an appeal against the sentence and remains under review, the source said.

She faces execution if the Supreme Court upholds the ruling.

Abolhassani’s case follows reports of death sentences against two other men detained during January’s nationwide protests.

Earlier in the week, US-based rights group HRANA reported that Amir Mohammad Mojallal Choubari, 22, and Hossein Nazari, 25, were sentenced to death in separate cases.

Last Sunday, Iran executed Majid Adineh, another January protest detainee, after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

Adineh was arrested on January 9 in Mohammadshahr, near Karaj. A Revolutionary Court sentenced him to death and ordered the confiscation of all his property over accusations of taking “operational action” for Israel, the United States and hostile groups.

Earlier this month, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said on that Iran was using capital punishment to “instill fear among the population and suppress dissent,” urging authorities to halt executions and move toward abolishing the death penalty.

He called the persistent lack of fair-trial and due-process guarantees “deeply troubling,” citing reports of confessions obtained under torture and cases in which executions followed within weeks of arrest.

The US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said Wednesday it had documented 950 executions in Iran since the beginning of 2026, including at least 20 women and 30 protesters. It recorded 45 executions in August so far.

The rights group said Iran’s use of the death penalty took place within a judicial system marked by unfair proceedings, a lack of transparency and political interference, with fair-trial protections systematically violated.