CCTV reported on August 14 that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Berwnet said on Thursday that Washington is preparing to take unprecedented economic measures against Iran.
Bessenert said in an interview with Newsmax: 'This action will combine unprecedented economic isolation measures with ongoing blockades of the Hormuz Strait, thereby cutting off all access to Iranian ports. Please keep an eye on more announcements to be released next week.'
Regarding this, Fox News has expressed a pessimistic stance. Behnar Ben Taleeblu, a senior researcher at the ‘Defending Democracy’ Foundation, told Fox News that as Washington intensifies its sanctions, Tehran is likely to increase military pressure in response.
Taliblu said: 'As we enter the early autumn, it is expected that they will respond to Trump's economic policies with force. If the president reverts to using economic pressure as a means of control, just as he did in 2019, the Iranian regime will also use force to try to break through this economic blockade.'
He added, “I believe that there will be more attacks on ships in the future, and possibly also attacks on US military bases or infrastructure in the Persian Gulf countries. Iran will definitely create a hierarchical list of targets, based on the value of each target and the degree to which it could provoke a response from the United States.”
On June 17th of this year, the United States and Iran signed a temporary memorandum of understanding, which called for an immediate and permanent cessation of all military operations on the front lines. Both parties were given up to 60 days to reach a final agreement. However, Trump announced on July 7th that the agreement had ended, leading to its collapse. The originally scheduled 60-day period will expire on August 17th. Currently, control over the Strait of Hormuz remains one of the most difficult issues in negotiations.
Iranian Basij militia commander Hossein Taeyeb stated on Thursday that the Hormuz Strait is still "under Iranian control and management." His statement contradicts Trump's claim a day earlier that the United States had "full control" over the Strait.
Currently, negotiations between the United States and Iran remain deadlocked.
