DUBAI\/CAIRO
\nIranian leaders are acknowledging the economic toll of war with the U.S., with the supreme \u200bleader urging the government to address the hardship and the president saying foreign trade has shrunk by a third due to the American sanctions and blockade.
\nYet \u200cTehran signalled no retreat on Saturday, vowing to withstand U.S. pressure, pursue diplomacy and maintain what it said was control over the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway giving Iran leverage through its ability to disrupt global energy markets.
\nThe government said in a statement on state media that addressing economic pressures caused by sanctions and war was a central focus, including curbing inflation, managing markets, creating jobs, directing investment towards domestic production and gradually reducing dependence \u200bon the dollar.
\nSix months after the U.S. and Israel launched the war, negotiations are at an impasse and President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has stepped up efforts to punish Iran \u200bfinancially with what it has billed as an \u201ceconomic D-Day\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sanctions compound toll on Iran\u2019s economy
\nWashington has warned countries to cut business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions, though the Treasury Department stopped short of imposing penalties against major Iranian trade partners such as China and India, which could have repercussions for the U.S. and global economies.
\nThe Treasury \u200bimposed sanctions on Egypt\u2019s Banque Misr for doing business with Tehran, proposing a rule that would cut off the bank\u2019s branches in the United Arab Emirates from dollar transactions.
\nEgypt\u2019s central bank said it and \u200bthe foreign ministry were in contact with U.S. officials concerning the matter, adding the measure was limited to Banque Misr UAE\u2019s U.S. dollar transactions with correspondent banks only.
\nBanque Misr said later in a statement it was reviewing the U.S. Treasury notice, adding that its branch in the UAE continued to provide banking services to its customers in line with applicable rules and procedures.
\nThe U.S. also issued sanctions targeting an entity based in Hong \u200bKong and a person linked to Iran\u2019s Bank Melli, according to a notice on the Treasury website.
\nThe sanctions drive compounds the toll of the war on Iran\u2019s economy, where annual inflation hit 66% \u200blast month.
\nSupreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei \u2014 who has not been seen publicly since he was injured in the initial February 28 attack that killed his father and former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei \u2014 called on the \u200cgovernment to tackle the economic hardship.
\n\u201cThere is the need to seriously address the chain of economic and livelihood challenges, such as inflation, unemployment, management of prices and the market for goods and services,\u201d according to a written statement attributed to Khamenei.
\nPresident Masoud Pezeshkian told state media that Iranian exports and imports had slumped nearly 35% because of U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of Iranian ports.
\nBut he said Iran was able to sell about 90 million barrels of oil during the short-lived memorandum of understanding that the U.S. and Iran signed in June, when Washington permitted Iranian oil sales.<\/p>\n
Iran vows to pursue diplomacy and defence
\nWith the U.S. focused on \u200bits economic pressure campaign, others have sought to revive diplomatic efforts to end the war.
\nQatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday. He said he had stressed during the meeting the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
\nIranian Foreign \u200bMinister Abbas Araqchi on Friday described the talks with Al Thani as \u201ccreative\u201d.
\nIn Saturday\u2019s statement, Iran said diplomacy and defence were \u201ctwo complementary, coordinated and \u200binseparable wings\u201d for protecting the country\u2019s national interests, security and territorial integrity. It said it would pursue both tracks in a balanced manner.
\nQatar, a U.S. ally and Gulf neighbour to Iran, and Pakistan helped broker the June memorandum of understanding that led to a brief ceasefire before disagreements over the vital strait caused it to unravel. Before the war, the waterway carried 20% of the world\u2019s oil and LNG.
\nU.S. military commanders say American forces have cleared \u200bsea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
\nTrump has repeatedly \u200bsaid the Strait of Hormuz is open, but the Revolutionary Guards\u2019 navy said in a statement that such claims \u201care an obvious lie\u201d, reiterating that the waterway remained closed to ships without Iranian permission.
\nOnly seven commodity vessels transited the strait on Thursday, \u200bdown from 17 a day earlier and below the 10-day average of 15, preliminary shipping data showed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DUBAI\/CAIRO Iranian leaders are acknowledging the economic toll of war with the U.S., with the supreme \u200bleader urging the government to address the hardship and the president saying foreign trade has shrunk by a third due to the American sanctions and blockade. Yet \u200cTehran signalled no retreat on Saturday, vowing to withstand U.S. pressure, pursue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n