Friday, August 21, 2026

Tehran says planned US sanctions threaten global economy

Iran war live: Tehran says planned US sanctions threaten global economy

By Shola Lawal, Edna Mohamed and Enes Abuomer

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that Washington will impose the “toughest sanctions in history” to “collapse” the Iranian government, calling on other nations, including China, to join the effort.
China has criticised the US president’s “economic D-Day” push against Iran, warning that additional sanctions will fail to resolve ongoing disputes.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the US threat of new economic sanctions, describing the proposed measures as “illegal and inhumane”.
US Central Command says its forces have redirected 67 merchant ships, disabled three, and boarded two others travelling to or from Iranian ports while enforcing a revived naval blockade.

8m ago
(09:45 GMT)
Five Palestinians injured in settler attacks south of Hebron
At least five people have been injured and vehicles and equipment burned during an attack by Israeli settlers across areas south of Hebron, Wafa reports.
According to security sources, a group of armed settlers attacked homes with stones in the Deir Shams area south of Hebron, resulting in the injuries of five people. The settlers have also been accused of stealing a number of sheep.
The settlers also attacked an ambulance belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
Local activist Osama Makhamra told Wafa that a group of settlers stormed the home of Ibrahim al-Jabarin in the Shaab al-Batim area of Masafer Yatta and damaged his property, before the Israeli forces stormed the area and arrested al-Jabarin and his son Jibril.
Security sources added that soldiers stormed the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron, and arrested three people after raiding their homes.
23m ago
(09:30 GMT)
UN’s Albanese condemns ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestine
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, has once again condemned ongoing Israeli actions in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
“The MOST IMMORAL ARMY strikes again. And again. And again. In the West Bank, soldiers and settlers cut water pipes, while Qusra’s siege continues,” she wrote on X, referring to the Israeli army.
“In Gaza the pulverization continues and so the massacres. Since the ceasefire Israel has killed 1,200+ people, including 300 children,” she added.
38m ago
(09:15 GMT)
How damaging is the E1 settlement to the prospects of a Palestinian state?
By Nida Ibrahim
Reporting from Qaryut, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank
The E1 settlement cuts the West Bank into two separate halves – the southern part and the northern part – and that gap in between will be filled with illegal Israeli settlements.
So imagine it as a building block that is stopping Palestinians from getting, for example, from Ramallah to Bethlehem, or from Nablus to Hebron. They would be completely cut off by this huge bloc of illegal Israeli settlements.
One of the ideas that has been floated by the Israelis is even to give Palestinians underground tunnels to be able to move from one city to another.
This further fragments the future Palestinian independent state as it cuts it in half, but it is also a reminder of how Israel has been using these illegal settlements strategically.
They are very well placed in a way to prevent Palestinians from ever having a Palestinian state.

53m ago
(09:00 GMT)
Secondary sanctions on Iran won’t work because US has ‘lost credibility,’ analyst says
We’ve been speaking to Alex Alfirraz Scheers, an independent political analyst, regarding Trump’s latest warnings against trading with Tehran.
Scheers said the US’s latest push to put maximum economic pressure on Tehran is a replay of what the first Trump administration tried – and failed to do.
The administration’s unpredictability at the time meant countries were indeed more wary of Trump’s threats, he said.
However, it’s clear in his second term that Trump is “not credible”, Scheers pointed out, and that has reduced the influence the US has on the international community, meaning secondary sanctions on Iran are unlikely to work.
The US, the analyst noted, has committed a series of strategic blunders during its campaign against Iran. The “original sin”, he said, was that the US showed it didn’t know how to use its military might or how to exercise effective statecraft, obvious in the way it has shifted between different approaches to handling Iran.
Trump has similarly treated its allies in the same way, picking on allies like Denmark and threatening to annex Canada, Scheers said.
“All this points to a broader reality that this administration doesn’t really know how to play the geo-strategic game,” he concluded.
1h ago
(08:50 GMT)
No intention of military confrontation with armed factions: Iraqi PM
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi says his government has no intention of entering into a military confrontation with armed factions, adding that constructive talks are under way over bringing weapons under state control.
Speaking at the eighth Baghdad Dialogue Conference, al-Zaidi said: “We are facing difficult days that no previous government has faced.”
He said some factions had already handed over their weapons, severed previous affiliations and joined the Popular Mobilisation Forces, while discussions were continuing with others.
“There is no intention of a military confrontation with the armed factions, and there is constructive dialogue with them on restricting weapons to the state,” he said.
Al-Zaidi said that “all political forces agree on moving forward with restricting weapons to the state”, adding that work is under way on mechanisms for their handover.
The prime minister also described the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a “major challenge”, saying Iraqi oil exports were currently at about 10 percent of normal levels and that alternative export routes were “makeshift and limited”.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi, on July 29, 2026 [Media Office of the Prime Minister/Handout via Reuters]
1h ago
(08:45 GMT)
China unlikely to bow to US pressure over Iranian oil
By Katrina Yu
Reporting from Beijing, China
There is no indication that Beijing intends to comply with US pressure to stop buying Iranian oil, with China maintaining that it rejects unilateral US sanctions and that trade between two countries is strictly their own business.
China is Iran’s biggest crude customer, buying about 80 percent of its shipments, much of it going to smaller “teapot” refineries through tanker networks that can obscure the oil’s origin.
China is not extremely reliant on Iranian oil and could theoretically stop buying it if Washington applied enough pressure. But doing so would carry a major political cost for President Xi Jinping, because Beijing does not want to send a message that it is willing to “kowtow or comply under US pressure”, which could set a dangerous precedent domestically and internationally.
The dispute comes before Xi’s planned visit to Washington on September 24. Other tensions, including US restrictions on Chinese technology firms and pressure on countries to choose sides in the AI race, are already casting a shadow over the meeting.
So far, however, there is no indication the tensions will derail the visit. For Washington, a key goal is keeping critical rare-earth minerals flowing from China, while Beijing wants to maintain the trade truce and keep tariffs down.
1h ago
(08:30 GMT)
Lebanon ‘will spare no effort to achieve the complete Israeli withdrawal’: Salam
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said his government “will spare no effort to achieve the complete Israeli withdrawal and the return of our prisoners to their cities and villages”, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
Salam travelled to Tyre and addressed soldiers deployed there following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the southern Lebanese city, according to the state-owned National News Agency.
The prime minister spoke to troops at the Benoit Barakat Barracks, and assured them that the country is mobilising international support to ensure their welfare amid the “Israeli aggression”.
“Strengthening the army is not a secondary item in our government’s programme, nor is it a technical matter; it is a strategic choice at the heart of our project to restore the state,” he said.
Defence Minister Michel Mansour, also speaking in Tyre, said the Lebanese army would not rest until it restores “the sovereignty of the state and every inch of our land”.
Lebanese troops and other security agencies have been de-mining formerly occupied areas and assisting displaced people who are returning home.
1h ago
(08:22 GMT)
Israel carries out new strikes in southern Lebanon
An Israeli air strike has targeted a house on the outskirts of Baraachit, in the Bint Jbeil district of southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
1h ago
(08:20 GMT)
Iran military chief warns of ‘crushing’ response to new threats
Iran’s armed forces will respond to any “miscalculation” or conventional and emerging threats with a “crushing, regrettable and devastating” response, Chief of Staff Major-General Ali Abdollahi has said, according to state broadcaster IRIB.
In a message marking Iran’s Defence Industry Day, Abdollahi said the country’s armed forces were maintaining readiness across land, sea, air, air defence, space and cyber domains.
He described developments at Iran’s Defence Ministry in recent years as going beyond the production of military equipment, calling them a “deterrent defence industrial revolution” encompassing technology management, the defence economy, knowledge-based industries and advanced production.
Abdollahi said the changes were intended to strengthen Iran’s ability to confront what he described as increasingly complex forms of warfare.