Iranian Shura Council Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said that Tehran had received messages from neighboring countries regarding the formulation of new security and economic arrangements in the region, considering that the United States had endangered the security of its allies “for the sake of Israel.”
Ghalibaf wrote, in an English-language post on the
He added, "An independent system emerging from the region is what will truly achieve peace and security."
Ghalibaf's statements come after US President Donald Trump, in a post on the Truth Social platform on August 19, announced an economic campaign against Iran, which he described as "the most severe crushing economic operation ever taken against any country," and called it "Economic D-Day." On the other hand, Iranian officials and media downplayed the impact of the anticipated measures, considering that they would not achieve their goals.
Iranian officials have repeatedly said that US allies in the region, especially countries that host US bases, suffered greater damage during the recent conflict after the territories of some of them were subjected to Iranian missile attacks.
This escalation comes at a time when oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are still almost halted, while Tehran maintains its ability to disrupt navigation in the strategic corridor, in exchange for American efforts to tighten economic pressure on it.
On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besent is scheduled to reveal details of measures that he described as “the harshest sanctions in history” on Iran, according to Reuters.
China is a major axis in the US pressure strategy, as it bought more than 80 percent of Iranian oil shipped during 2025, according to data from Kpler energy market analysis company, reported by Reuters.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei rejected the anticipated sanctions, describing them in a post on the
In another development, Iran announced progress in repairing the gas refinery of Phase 14 of the South Pars field, which was damaged in an Israeli attack in June last year.
The CEO of Pars Oil and Gas Company, Torg Dehqani, said, according to the "Shana" agency affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Oil, that the refinery repair work has been completed by 70 percent.
He added that the refinery will be completely restored by the end of the year, with the damaged part fully reintegrated into the production cycle.
The dispute escalated between Iran and Qatar over the fate of Iranian pilots, after Tehran demanded, on Saturday, that those it says are detained by Doha be transferred to a hospital on land, indicating that their health condition is poor and that their place of detention is not appropriate.
Qatar denies detaining any Iranian pilots, and says that its search and rescue teams found the remains of one of the pilots and handed them over to Tehran. It also confirmed that it had invited an Iranian team to review the details of the search and rescue operations, while Iran adheres to its story that other pilots are still alive and detained in Qatar.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Iran wants to reach an agreement, but, in his opinion, “it is not ready to conclude the appropriate agreement,” adding that Washington is monitoring developments in the conflict.
For his part, the Chief of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Ali Abdullah, vowed to respond to any new threats with “overwhelming, punitive and destructive” responses, according to Iranian media quoted by Reuters.
On the other hand, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called for ending the war through a diplomatic solution, saying, according to the Iranian ISNA news agency, that it would be better to end it “today” while Iran is still, in his words, in “a position of strength and dignity.”
During an interview with Iranian and Iraqi businessmen, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf acknowledged the economic pressures facing his country, saying that military force alone is not enough if the population suffers from hunger and declines in growth and production, according to the official IRNA agency.
According to Reuters, US military operations have caused significant damage to the Iranian economy and to the Iranian naval and air forces, but Iran still maintains missile and drone capabilities that allow it to disrupt the movement of oil tankers and threaten its opponents in the region.
Washington has also not yet achieved some of the main goals that Trump announced when the war began, including dismantling the Iranian nuclear program, the status of which remains unclear in light of the broad restrictions imposed on the access of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to Iranian nuclear facilities since 2025.
As the stalemate continued, the repercussions of the war were no longer limited to the Middle East, as its economic and political costs began to put greater pressure on Trump at home in America, before the midterm congressional elections in November.
Rising energy prices, coupled with pressures from rising gasoline and food prices, have heightened political concerns within the Republican Party.
The latest poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos showed that support for Trump's performance fell to 33 percent, the lowest level recorded during his current term.
This comes before the election campaigns enter an intense phase after Labor Day on September 7, amid fears that unresolved foreign conflicts and their economic repercussions will affect the Republicans’ chances of maintaining control of Congress.
Trump returned to the White House last year, presenting himself as a "peacemaker" and making ending international conflicts one of the pillars of his second term.
But the war with Iran, along with the faltering settlement efforts in Gaza and Ukraine, has begun to test this picture.
A Trump ally told Reuters, requesting anonymity, that the conflict with Iran places a "severe" burden on the president, and that there is still no consensus within the White House on how to end it.
The pressures may intensify if investors conclude that the war will last longer, as this could lead to increased borrowing costs in the United States and narrow Trump’s margin in implementing his domestic economic agenda.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Reuters that the Trump administration had ended a number of wars, contributed to the release of hostages from Gaza, and concluded trade agreements, stressing that Iran would be prevented from possessing a nuclear weapon.
A senior US administration official told the agency that sanctions and the naval blockade have weakened the Iranian economy, adding that Trump has "many pressure tools" that he can use in the coming weeks.
Trump's foreign agenda continues to falter on other fronts, as Jared Kushner, the US President's son-in-law and one of his envoys, left talks on Gaza without achieving a breakthrough that would allow the US peace plan to move forward.
Israel and Hamas still disagree on the conditions necessary to move to the next stages of the plan drafted by Trump last October, while mediators fear that escalating Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip will undermine efforts to reach a settlement.
As for Ukraine, an expected visit to Kiev, which was scheduled to be made by Kushner and American envoy Steve Witkoff, has not yet taken place in an attempt to revive the stalled negotiations to end the Russian war.
Trump has succeeded in bringing the war parties to the negotiating table, but the conflict, the longest in Europe since World War II, is still far from over.
17 people were killed in Kiev and the surrounding area in Russian strikes on Thursday, according to the latest toll reported by Reuters.
In Lebanon, Israeli raids killed at least 11 people in the south of the country on Saturday, August 15, despite the continuation of a framework of calm between Lebanon and Israel that was reached with American mediation, according to Reuters.
Critics of this approach see Iran as the clearest test of its limits. Tehran has been subjected to months of military and economic pressure, but it has not yet made the major concessions demanded by Washington.
Steven Wertheim, a senior scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Reuters that Trump relies to a large extent on coercion, and sometimes on flattery, to get others to accept his terms, but he does not take his opponents’ strategic goals and domestic political calculations into account to the same extent.
The faltering of these files becomes more important as the midterm elections approach in November, as the Republicans’ loss of control over one or both chambers of Congress may reduce Trump’s ability to implement his agenda during the last two years of his term.
Analysts believe that Washington's opponents are also aware of the limited political time available to the US President, and may find an interest in prolonging the negotiations instead of making quick concessions.
