21.8.2026
Iran said on Friday that its response to any new U.S. threats would be “devastating” after Washington pledged to impose the toughest financial penalties in history with the aim of toppling the Iranian leadership. U.S. Treasury chief Scott Bessent said he would give details on Monday of the planned sanctions, which follow a warning from President Donald Trump of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran.”
The chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, said the Islamic Republic’s reaction would be broad and decisive.
“With preparedness across land, sea, air, air defence and cyberspace, Iran’s armed forces will respond to the enemy’s new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses,” Abdollahi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country’s main negotiator in mediated talks with the United States, said Washington appeared to have concluded it could not prevail in its direct military confrontation.
“We must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them,” he said in neighbouring Iraq, accusing the U.S. and Israel of resorting to what he said was economic and “cognitive” warfare. But, speaking to Iranian and Iraqi businesspeople late on Thursday, Qalibaf acknowledged the strain on Iran’s economy. “No matter how much military power we have, we won’t survive if people are hungry and we don’t have financial turnover, economic growth and national production,” Qalibaf said, according to official news agency IRNA. Agency reports