Drivers queue at a petrol station to refuel in Tehran.
Day 180 | Iranians queue for petrol after US announces new sanctions
Long queues formed at petrol stations in Tehran on Tuesday after the United States announced fresh sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran into submission.
Washington has turned to pulling economic levers six months into a war on Iran that has ground to a stalemate, with peace talks stalled and most traffic through the crucial Strait of Hormuz blocked.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday laid out plans for the "economic asphyxiation" of Iran, saying the "objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime".
Though Iran's leaders have shrugged off the tough talk, having already endured sanctions for decades, some residents of the capital feared that they would feel the pinch.
Iran had already been grappling with sky-high inflation before the war, which fuelled an anti-government protest movement that peaked in January.
Authorities met the movement with a crackdown that foreign rights groups said killed thousands of people. The government has attributed the violence to "terrorist acts" orchestrated by the United States and ‘Israel’.
Announcing the new sanctions, Bessent said countries that did not support the US economic campaign would "share in the isolation" of Iran.
The Treasury Department said expanded secondary sanctions would target Iran's digital assets and its technology, gold, aviation and shipping sectors.
The measures hit entities around the world, including in the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Europe.
China, a key customer for Iranian oil, said Tuesday that it opposed the sanctions and vowed to "take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its own rights and interests".
Bessent did not rule out the possibility of Chinese banks being targeted.
Iran, however, was dismissive of the moves and predicted "another defeat" for Washington.
"We've been waiting for these plans for a long time, and the government is and was ready and has a two-year plan to manage these events," said Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh.
Report reveals damage caused to CIA equipment from Iranian strikes
Iranian missile and drone attacks have caused unprecedented damage to US intelligence posts and surveillance equipment across the Middle East, with repair costs expected to reach into the billions of dollars, according to four people with knowledge of the matter, cited by NBC News.
The damage, which has hit buildings and specialized hardware used by the CIA and other American spy agencies, is more extensive than any destruction those agencies have previously endured, the sources told NBC News.
The attacks form part of the broader conflict that escalated after US and ‘Israeli’ operations against Iran began in late February.
“The attacks on buildings and surveillance equipment in the Middle East caused unprecedented damage for the CIA and other U.S. spy agencies,” the NBC report stated.
The Iranian strikes have forced Congress to identify funds to restore the targeted facilities and prompted officials to reassess how to deploy personnel and intelligence resources in a region now confronting a heightened threat from Tehran’s drone and missile capabilities.
Earlier reporting throughout the conflict documented widespread strikes on US military sites in multiple countries, including damage to radars, satellite communications infrastructure, hangars, runways, and other assets.
Assessments drawing on satellite imagery indicated scores of structures and pieces of equipment had been hit, with some high-value systems such as advanced missile-defense radars among those affected.
Prior estimates of repair and replacement costs for broader US facilities in the region have ranged from roughly $2 billion to more than $5 billion in various analyses, though those figures largely focused on military infrastructure rather than dedicated intelligence sites.
Pentagon officials have previously noted that official war-cost tallies often exclude full reconstruction expenses.
The latest assessment underscores the vulnerability of fixed intelligence and surveillance positions to Iran’s retaliatory campaign, even as US forces have conducted extensive operations against Iranian targets.
Rubio told counterparts US will not carry out strikes against Iran "for the time being": Axios
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told several of his counterparts in recent days that the US is not expected to carry out new strikes against Iran “for the time being,” according to US officials cited by Axios.
Washington will now focus on “other means of pressure,” including the sanctions announced by Trump this week, which he described as an “economic D-Day,” the report added.
The policy is expected to continue at least until after the midterm elections, when new military strikes could be back again on the table, another anonymous official said.
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Read more: Day 179 | US vows “economic asphyxiation” of Iran with new sanctions
