Iran labels new US sanctions ‘unjust’

Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament , pushed back Friday against “unjust” U.S. economic sanctions placed on the country by the Trump administration earlier this week.

“We must plan for the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them,” Qalibaf told a group of economic representatives in Baghdad, according to a message shared on Telegram.

President Trump announced Wednesday that his administration would impose the “most crushing economic operation ever” against Tehran amid negotiations to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil-trading waterway in the region.

“This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” the president wrote on Truth Social .

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had previously teased new economic sanctions against Iran, said he would share more details about the measures next week.

“It is a one-two punch. We have ​the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history,” the secretary told ​CNBC on Thursday. “It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this ⁠regime.”

The Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry responded Thursday , saying these new sanctions amount to “economic terrorism” in a statement shared by state media.

“These sanctions, imposed following the wars imposed by U.S.-Israeli regimes against Iran over the past year and a half and their failure to achieve their sinister objectives of forcing the Iranian people to surrender to their illegal and anti-human ambitions, will merely add to the list of crimes committed by the United States against Iran,” the statement said .

“They will, however, undoubtedly have the slightest effect on the determination of Iranians to safeguard Iran’s independence, dignity and national sovereignty,” the ministry added.

Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, the chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, also vowed there will be a “devastating” response to any threat against Iran in a Friday message.

“With preparedness across land, sea, air, air defense and cyberspace, Iran’s armed forces will respond to the enemy’s new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses,” Abdollahi said, according to state media.