Iran Warns Gulf States Against Joining Trump’s Economic War, or Else

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Iran’s new hard-line national security adviser, Mohsen Rezaei, vowed to prevent “a single drop of oil” from leaving the region.

Screenshot taken from this NYT article. | Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s new security chief, last month in Tehran. Though hostilities have largely ceased, the United States and Iran are locked in an economic standoff. Credit: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
President Trump has warned that “Economic D-Day” is coming for Iran. This weekend, Tehran promised to fight back, threatening any nation that helps the United States.

Iran’s new security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, on Saturday vowed to strike the interests of oil-rich neighbors if they joined U.S. efforts to further isolate Iran, whose economy is already in free fall. He warned that Tehran would seek to prevent “even a single drop of oil” from leaving the region.

“Any country that becomes a partner in creating economic restrictions against us will be regarded by us as an enemy,” he said in an interview with Iran’s state broadcaster.

Mr. Razaei is a political hard-liner and former head of the Revolutionary Guards. The interview offered his first extensive comments since taking up his new post two weeks ago — and struck an aggressive tone in line with Iran’s increasingly uncompromising regional strategy. At one point, he asked whether Iran should pursue building a nuclear bomb, which Tehran has previously insisted it has no intention of doing. » | Erika Solomon | Sunday, August 23, 2026