Iran vows devastating response as US threatens crushing sanctions designed to collapse regime

DUBAI/WASHINGTON — Iran said on Friday that its response to any new U.S. threats would be “devastating” after Washington pledged to impose the toughest financial penalties in history with the aim of toppling the Iranian leadership.Washington prepared for sanctions that U.S.Treasury chief Scott Bessent said he would detail on Monday. President Donald Trump earlier warned of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran.”The chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, said the Islamic Republic’s reaction would be broad and decisive.“With preparedness across land, sea, air, air defense and cyberspace, Iran’s armed forces will respond to the enemy’s new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses,” Abdollahi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country’s main negotiator in mediated talks with the United States, said Washington appeared to have concluded it could not prevail in its direct military confrontation.“We must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them,” he said in neighboring Iraq, accusing the U.S.

and Israel of resorting to what he said was economic and “cognitive” warfare.Oil prices edged lower on Friday but were on track for a second weekly rise after rising on Thursday following the new U.S.sanctions threat.“I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this,” Bessent told CNBC.

“If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” he said, using a term referring to military force.Thousands of people have been killed in the war, which has drawn in Gulf nations and raised global fuel prices as Iran has attacked shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which before February carried about a fifth of all traded oil.Just seven commodity ships sailed along the S...