Iran defiant over US economic sanctions

Tehran has denounced Washington's long-running economic pressure campaign as "economic terrorism" and a "crime against humanity", as the United States is touting a crippling financial offensive it calls "the toughest sanctions in history".

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday that it was time to end the months-long war, saying Tehran was in a position of "power and dignity", as talks between Iran and the United States remain on hold.

Nearing the six-month mark of the conflict, US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Washington would wage an "unprecedented" economic warfare and isolation campaign against Iran. The push aims to force Tehran to dismantle its nuclear program and fully reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz, though he offered few concrete details.

"The perpetrators and instigators are deserving of trial and punishment for committing such heinous crimes," Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

"They (sanctions) will undoubtedly have not the slightest effect on the determination of Iranians to safeguard Iran's independence and national sovereignty," according to the statement.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Friday that Iran must plan to overcome the "unjust sanctions", accusing the US and Israel of resorting to economic and "cognitive" warfare.

In an interview with CNBC, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a partial preview of incoming measures, threatening secondary sanctions against nations and companies maintaining business ties with Iran.

"Economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies — and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world — and we are going to them and saying, 'You are either with us or against us'," he said, adding that he would hold a news conference on Monday to discuss details.

China said on Friday that the US sanctions and pressure would not resolve the conflict.

"Sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters, calling on "all relevant parties to take responsible measures and resolve the problem through political and diplomatic means".

"China opposes illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorized by the United Nations Security Council," he said.

Legal experts, meanwhile, said no country can impose a full-scale embargo without UN Security Council authorization, meaning US action is limited to unilateral sanctions through US-linked financial institutions.

Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said earlier that Washington's pattern of resorting to sanctions when it doesn't want to pursue diplomacy has proven to be futile.

"The real risk is that US politicians, clinging to this bad habit, will instead strangle their own remaining chances of a less humiliating exit from a crisis of their own making," he wrote on X.

Steep barriers

Tehran-based analyst Mostafa Khoshcheshm said Washington's bid to coerce third-party states into cutting commercial ties with Tehran faces steep barriers, given Iran's deep-rooted regional trade links with neighboring countries.

"Unless you convince all the other neighbors — Iraq, Turkiye, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan — to place a blockade on Iran … this would be impossible because they are not working with the US," he told Al Jazeera.

Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, said the Trump administration's drive to escalate its "maximum pressure" playbook alongside military deployments ignores decades worth of US foreign policy lessons showing Iran does not yield under coercion.

The US military confirmed on Thursday that the USS George Washington has arrived in the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Iran has endured punishing economic sanctions for nearly 50 years, dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. More than 6,000 sanctions target Iran's finance, banking, aviation and energy sectors.

Agencies contributed to this story.