TEHRAN/CAIRO/WASHINGTON: Iran on Saturday warned countries against participating in the United States' "economic war" against the Islamic republic, saying they would be considered enemies. "We declare to all countries... do not join the economic war waged by the United States. Any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy," said Mohsen Rezaei, a senior Iranian official, on state television.

Iran on Saturday denounced US plans to announce new sanctions that could put further strain on the Islamic Republic's economy and have an impact on its most important trading partners including China. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Monday after threatening "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran.

Bessent has also urged cooperation with Washington by China, which buys more than 80 per cent of Iran's shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Beijing has urged diplomacy.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said on Saturday the imminent US announcement of new economic sanctions was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations." "Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," he said in a post on X.

Iran has granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait following repeated requests from Baghdad, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US military helped move a seven-day average of 8 million barrels a day of oil through the strait, down from more than 20 million per day before the conflict.