Iranian President urges unity as US imposes toughest economic sanctions yet
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran will stay united despite the United States' new “Economic D-Day” sanctions targeting the regime and IRGC.
In a televised address, President Masoud Pezeshkian declared that national cohesion will neutralize the United States’ “Economic D-Day” sanctions, the harshest ever imposed on Iran’s regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He cautioned that foreign powers seek to create unrest, referencing the 2019-2020 fuel-price protests, and said the government will not make abrupt policy changes. The administration plans to raise the price of one of three private-vehicle petrol tiers and cut monthly quotas, even as the rial fell to over 2.25 million per dollar and U.S. forces bombed a tanker near Kharg Island.
Iranian officials, including IRGC intelligence, warned of internal pressure campaigns, while judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei pledged tougher prosecutions for threats to national security. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf identified the street as a fourth battlefield, and Supreme Court judge Ahmad-Reza Radan ordered heightened monitoring. The Supreme Court also upheld a 12.5-year sentence for businessman Sadegh Saedinia over his Instagram-posted protest strike.
Why it matters
The story shows how heightened U.S. sanctions and internal crackdowns could deepen Iran’s economic crisis and social tension.
How this story developed
- Jul 20 U.S. and Iran intensify air strikes over Strait of Hormuz, diplomacy stalls
- Sep 2 U.S. conducts a second wave of strikes on Iranian infrastructure.
- Sep 3 Iran's army claimed radar systems and locations where American forces were stationed at the UAE's Al Minhad Air Base were attacked with missiles and drones.
- Sep 3 Trump advisers have begun actively lobbying to limit escalation of the Iran war before the midterm elections.
- Sep 3 During a White House briefing, JD Vance said there is no active shooting between U.S. and Iranian forces and described the hostilities as limited flare-ups. He cited past strikes that destroyed Iran’s nuclear facilities and defense industry but refused to set a date for ending the conflict, noting the U.S. must continue protecting commercial shipping. The remarks came after President Donald Trump dismissed recent Iranian attacks as a "love tap" and warned of further strikes.
- Sep 3 Ofgem announced a 4% increase to the UK energy price cap.
- Sep 4 Vance announced the U.S. will not negotiate with Iran until attacks on commercial shipping cease.
- Sep 4 Iran has begun testing methanol as an oxygenate in its gasoline blend.
- Sep 4 Iran announced missile and drone attacks on U.S. bases in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
- Sep 4 US retail diesel rose to a record, threatening to further spike energy-driven inflation as wars in Iran and Russia roil the market.
- Sep 4 Vance is slated to speak on inflation and Iran at his first press briefing since July.
- Sep 4 The Security Council is set to vote on extending the sanctions expert panel on September 17.
- Sep 5 U.S. forces hit launchers on Larak Island and Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. sites in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
- Sep 5 Vance publicly downplayed the reported civilian deaths from the alleged strike.
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