Day 177 | Iran warns countries against joining US sanctions
Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Saturday that “any country participating in imposing economic restrictions on Iran is considered an enemy.”
“We say to all neighboring countries and all countries around the world: Do not join the economic war being waged by the United States,” Rezaei said in remarks to state television, following Washington’s announcement of tougher economic sanctions aimed at increasing pressure on Tehran.
He warned that if the countries concerned refused to “distance themselves” from the United States, Iran would cause “damage” to their interests.
“We have not yet attacked any US economic interests, and so far we have only targeted military bases. But if they want to impose economic sanctions on us, the United States has oil and economic companies near Iran and elsewhere, and we will strike them,” Rezaei said.
He stressed that if US President Donald Trump took “any action against us,” Iran’s response would be “like an earthquake.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused the United States of practicing “economic terrorism” after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to tighten economic sanctions on Iran “to push this regime toward collapse.”
Bessent is due to hold a news conference Monday on the mechanism Washington plans to use to intensify pressure on Tehran, nearly six months after the start of the war sparked by ‘Israeli’-US strikes against Iran.
The United States has urged its allies and China to join a broad campaign to pressure Iran with the aim of economically isolating it.
Beijing, however, which is a strategic economic partner of Tehran, said the solution to the conflict in the Middle East does not lie in US “sanctions and pressure” on Iran.
Iran’s trading partners include the United Arab Emirates, which announced Tuesday that it was “suspending all activities, trade exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice.”
Iran’s grip on Hormuz weakening: Report claims shipping traffic surged nearly 400%
Iran’s hold on the Strait of Hormuz is slipping as commercial shipping traffic through the vital waterway has surged nearly 400 percent over the past two weeks, with vessels increasingly favoring a US-supported southern corridor along Oman’s coast.
According to data from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center analyzed by CNN, nearly 200 ships navigated the strait last week—103 inbound and 89 outbound.
That marks a sharp rise from about 150 the previous week and roughly 40 vessels two weeks earlier.
The rebound brings overall traffic to around 20% of pre-war levels, when the passage routinely handled 100–140 ships daily and carried roughly 20 percent of the world’s seaborne oil.
The uptick reflects growing use of the southern Omani route, which is coordinated with US naval forces and air cover under operations that have facilitated more than 1,300 commercial vessels and over 660 million barrels of crude oil since early May.
US Central Command spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins stated: “Multiple routes remain free and open for commercial transit.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright separately noted that US forces had helped move more than 15 million barrels of oil and products out of the strait in a recent period, alongside additional volumes via pipelines.
Maritime analysts and officials indicate Iran is losing effective control of the waterway it has sought to dominate since the conflict began in late February.
More than 80 percent of liquids traffic over the past two weeks has used the Omani corridor—a UN-authorized channel that Tehran strongly opposes—while many other vessels sail “dark” with transponders off or take the northern Iranian-controlled route under varying degrees of risk.
Despite the recovery, traffic remains far below normal.
UKMTO and other monitors continue to report daily commercial transits often in the single digits or low teens, with persistent threats including projectile attacks, mines, and challenges by Iranian forces.
The southern route has accounted for the majority of recent reported strikes, prompting some operators to abort planned transits or shift northward.
Pre-war, the strait saw around 130–140 vessel transits daily and carried about 15–21 million barrels of oil and products per day.
Current volumes, while improved through the US-backed corridor, still leave global energy markets sensitive to further disruptions.
Private trackers such as Windward and Kpler have recorded crude exports through Hormuz rising into the multi-million-barrel-per-day range in recent months but remaining well short of historical norms.
Shipping executives and monitors note that larger vessels and those with greater risk tolerance have been among the first to resume movements, often under protection or in coordinated groups.
“My assessment is that it’s scaling and it’s scaling quickly despite the fact that Iran is placing enormous pressure on maritime security,” said Michelle Wiese Bockmann, senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward.
US Army Secretary expected to step down by year’s end: WSJ
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is expected to step down by the end of the year amid months of reported tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing people familiar with the discussions.
The departure, which could come sooner, would leave the Army without a Senate-confirmed civilian leader at a critical time.
The United States is engaged in a war it began alongside ‘Israel’ nearly six months ago, and the service already lacks a permanent chief of staff after Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George in April without public explanation.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, previously Hegseth’s senior military aide, is serving in an acting capacity.
Driscoll, a former Army Ranger, Yale Law classmate and close ally of Vice President JD Vance, took office in February 2025 as the youngest Army secretary in history.
He and his family moved out of the official residence at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall this summer, a move the Journal described as one indication of the planned exit.
His family relocated to North Carolina while he shifted to a smaller on-base apartment.
Spokespersons for Driscoll and the Pentagon have not commented on the latest report.
Tensions between the two officials have simmered for more than a year.
Hegseth reportedly viewed Driscoll’s influence and ties to Vance with suspicion, and sources previously described the defense secretary as harboring “paranoia” that Driscoll could replace him.
Clashes extended to personnel decisions, including promotions and the abrupt removal of George, whom Driscoll later praised as “an amazing, transformational leader.”
“I, too, loved General George,” Driscoll told lawmakers, adding that he drove straight to the general’s house upon returning from North Carolina to offer support.
In April, as speculation about his future intensified, Driscoll issued a firm denial.
“Serving under President Trump has been the honor of a lifetime, and I remain laser focused on providing America with the strongest land fighting force the world has ever seen,” he said.
“I have no plans to depart or resign as the Secretary of the Army.” The White House at the time publicly backed both men.
President Donald Trump offered a characteristically colorful endorsement of Driscoll as recently as last month at a defense conference, describing him as someone “with that beautiful smile, but he’s actually a killer.”
“Look at that beautiful, nice face, everything so happy. He’s a killer. Would you believe it? Those are the best kinds, actually,” Trump said.
Driscoll’s expected exit adds to a broader pattern of leadership turnover at the Pentagon under Trump’s second term, which has included changes among the Joint Chiefs and service leaders.
Iranian hackers reportedly shut down UK power plant for four fays
Iran-linked hackers shut down a small UK power plant for four days in what is described as the first successful attack of its kind on British electricity generation, according to a report by The Telegraph.
The incident, disclosed exclusively by the newspaper, involved hackers affiliated with Iranians disabling a relatively small electricity producer.
Staff worked for four days to restore operations.
Officials have not named the site for security reasons, but the outage had no effect on the UK’s wider power grid or national energy supply.
The Telegraph reported that the attack coincided with a series of Iranian-linked cyber incidents against US water and wastewater infrastructure last month that affected facilities across 12 states.
Those breaches caused flooding, loss of water pressure and boil-water advisories in some areas.
US authorities initially referred to “malicious cyber actors,” with later confirmation pointing to Tehran.
British officials assessed that the UK incident was unlikely intended to inflict genuine harm on civilians and was not widely noticed by the public.
It may instead have been designed to demonstrate that hackers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could gain access to sensitive systems and shut down infrastructure.
A government source described the affected site as “a very small scale site, less than a rounding error compared to grid capacity.”
In response, the UK Government briefed the chief executives of power companies and issued written advice to businesses on protective measures.
The incident was reported to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the public-facing arm of GCHQ.
The NCSC declined to comment on the specific case, consistent with its usual practice of not acknowledging individual incidents.
A government spokesman stated: “The UK has a highly resilient energy system. We work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure and ensure the highest security standards. This story refers to an incident impacting a small-scale energy generator, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system.”
There are dozens of small-scale plants across Britain, many gas-fired and used only intermittently to support the grid.
Iran has intensified cyber operations against Western targets since the escalation of Middle East conflict and the start of US and ‘Israeli’ air strikes in February.
The NCSC previously urged organisations to strengthen defences in March, while its chief executive, Richard Horne, noted in June that the agency had handled more than 200 incidents affecting critical national infrastructure in the prior year.
Intelligence assessments have long highlighted Iran’s cyber capabilities as an area of asymmetric strength, even as the overall risk of a major successful attack on core UK infrastructure has been rated between 5 and 25 percent.
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Read more: Day 176 | Key Iranian trading partner China rejects Trump’s ‘economic D-Day’ threat
