Trump announced a ‘crushing economic operation’ against Iran — the toughest sanctions…

The Iran confrontation is now being fought primarily with economic instruments, and both sides escalated their framing of it. Trump announced a ‘crushing economic operation,’ with the toughest sanctions package of the war due to be detailed Monday and US officials pressing China — Iran’s largest oil customer — to support it. Iran’s Foreign Ministry answered with a deliberately universalising claim: the sanctions are a ‘declaration of war’ not just on Iran but on all nations, ‘an attempt by the United States to exert extraterritorial sovereignty over all independent UN member states.’ That is an argument aimed at third countries rather than at Washington, and its traction with Beijing and Delhi is the thing worth watching. A close ally of Khamenei separately said Trump’s rhetoric reflects desperation and vowed Iran ‘will not submit.’ Practically, one small thing moved: Iranian state media said Tehran will allow Iraqi oil tankers to transit the strait — a targeted carve-out for a neighbour rather than a reopening, with overall traffic still near 20% of the pre-war average per CNN analysis. US gas prices are running nearly a dollar above last year, and AAA expects the highest August on record. On Ukraine, the General Staff’s Aug 22 report puts cumulative Russian losses at 1,475,270 (+1,240), and Kyiv observed a day of mourning for the at least 17 killed in Thursday’s mass barrage — the same attack that struck a Romanian gas project and a Moldovan border crossing.