By SCM International Desk I Saturday, August 22, 2026
TEHRAN — Iran issued its sharpest warning yet against Washington’s expanding campaign of financial pressure, threatening an “earthquake-like retaliation” that would target energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf and completely sever global oil transit if regional neighbors assist the United States.
Speaking in a televised interview on state broadcaster IRIB, Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), warned Gulf nations against joining what Tehran characterizes as Washington’s aggressive economic war.
”If neighboring countries of Iran join the economic war with the Americans, not a single drop of oil will leave the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr. Rezaei said. He added that Iranian forces would broaden their scope beyond the critical maritime choke point to strike land-based bypass infrastructure across the Middle East.
Specifically, Mr. Rezaei pointed to major alternative export hubs—including Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline terminus at Yanbu on the Red Sea and the United Arab Emirates’ crude terminal at Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman—signaling Tehran’s readiness to disable the primary safety valves designed to keep global energy markets afloat during Gulf crises.
”We have so far only targeted military bases,” Mr. Rezaei claimed, referring to previous cross-border exchanges, emphasizing that Iran had hitherto refrained from hitting American business operations in the Middle East. “But if they choose to escalate to an economic war, we are prepared to target all American oil and economic companies in the region”.
The explicit threats highlight a sharp escalation in rhetoric as President Donald J. Trump’s administration signals a heightened economic squeeze aimed at crippling Tehran’s remaining financial channels. The confrontation threatens to drag neighboring Arab monarchies into the center of a military and economic standoff.
The Strait of Hormuz—a narrow passage between Iran and Oman—serves as the conduit for roughly 20 percent of the world’s petroleum and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
While countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates built cross-country pipelines to Yanbu and Fujairah to bypass the volatile passage, Mr. Rezaei’s statements indicate that Tehran no longer views those bypass routes as off-limits if a full-scale economic blockade takes hold.
