Iran responds to announcement of new sanctions: Hormuz remains closed

US President Donald Trump has announced a package of sanctions against Iran that he described as “the most devastating economic operation ever undertaken against any country,” according to the live coverage by Sky TG24 and the account by Il Sole 24 Ore, which reports on a White House announcement. Tehran has replied stating it can withstand the new measures and does not intend to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

This is the substance of the day, and it is a substance made of statements, not acts: at the time of publication of this piece, the text of the US measures has not been made public, nor are the dates of entry into force or the entities targeted known. An announcement is not a measure, and until the measure can be read, what can be assessed is only the political reaction.

What Tehran says

The Iranian position, as reported by the sources cited, has two legs. The first is economic: the government maintains it can absorb the impact of the new sanctions, while implicitly acknowledging — by admitting rising inflation and unemployment — that the domestic picture has deteriorated. The second is strategic: no reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as a trade-off.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated, according to ANSA, “It is better to end the war today from a position of strength.” This is a phrase that admits two opposite readings — an opening for negotiation or a claim of resilience — and the dossier contains no elements to choose between them. We report it as a statement, not as an interpreted signal.

It is better to end the war today from a position of strength — Masoud Pezeshkian, Iranian President

The three sticking points on navigation

The only negotiating detail available comes through a double relay: the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida, cited by Il Sole 24 Ore, reports a source at the Iranian Foreign Ministry as saying that talks on navigation rules in the Strait still face three main sticking points, with mediation by Pakistan. The content of the three points is not specified in the material available to us.

It is worth being explicit about the value of this information: it is an anonymous source from one of the parties, relayed by a third-party newspaper and picked up by a fourth party. It is not independent confirmation that a table exists, it is the description one party gives of the table. We cite it because it is the only reference to an active diplomatic channel, and we label it as such.

The timeline

The conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran began on February 28, 2026: as of today, only a few days remain until the six-month mark. This is a fact that carries more weight than many statements, because a prolonged closure of a maritime route does not produce linear effects: it accumulates them, on insurance, on freight rates, on forward supply contracts, and it offloads them onto economies that are not party to the conflict.

The second calendar element is the US announcement itself. A sanctions package described in such emphatic terms obliges whoever announces it to follow through with documentation: executive orders, lists of designated entities, Treasury notices. Until then, the verifiable part of the story remains Iran’s position on the Strait, which today is unchanged.

What we don’t know

We don’t know the scope of the announced sanctions, we don’t know whether the Pakistani mediation channel has produced formal meetings, we don’t know the three negotiating sticking points beyond their stated existence according to a partisan source. We do not have, in this dossier, updated data on maritime traffic in the Strait: no transit figures are therefore published today.

What is established is that, on August 22, 2026, the stated position of the two governments is the same as the day before: Washington announces an economic crackdown, Tehran declares it can withstand it and keeps the Strait off the table. The first useful documentary check will be the publication of the American measures.