Iran vows Hormuz will stay closed as deal deadline expires

The 60-day window for the United States and Iran to reach a final agreement under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding expired on Monday with no deal in sight, as President Donald Trump hardened his rhetoric and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised unprecedented new economic measures as early as this week.

"They should put up the white flag of surrender," Trump told Fox News in a phone interview Monday, saying he was in no rush to reach a deal while claiming Iran has "300% inflation" and that its military is "totally defeated." Bessent told Newsmax on Aug. 13 to "watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation of a country."foxnews

Two Clocks Running Down

The June memorandum, brokered by Pakistan and Qatar, was intended to lead to a final deal covering Iran's nuclear program, sanctions relief and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, the accord unraveled over a dispute involving control of the strait, with Trump declaring it "over" on July 7.foxnews

Miad Maleki, a former Treasury sanctions analyst and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, described the situation as "two clocks running down" for Iran: oil exports and gasoline supplies. He called the current campaign "a maximum pressure campaign on steroids," arguing that a physical blockade is disrupting oil flows accounting for 40 to 60 percent of Iran's GDP.news3lv+1

Average Iranian oil loadings had fallen from 1.8 million barrels per day before the war to less than 500,000 barrels per day over the previous month, according to an Associated Press report on Aug. 11 citing Treasury figures. Reuters reported Monday that Iranian consumer prices in July were 87.9 percent higher than a year earlier, with food prices up 128 percent.foxnews

Tehran Digs In

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Tuesday that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened until the United States lifts its naval blockade, removes oil sanctions and releases frozen Iranian assets abroad. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei separately rejected the proposed new measures, saying they would have "no effect on Iran's position" and that "methods that have been tried before and produced no results are not going to produce a different outcome."mehrnews+2

What Comes Next

Reuters reported Monday that a senior Iranian official threatened military escalation within weeks if Washington does not implement the interim agreement. Among the options being weighed by the Trump administration are sanctions on Chinese "teapot" refineries that process Iranian crude, secondary sanctions on Chinese banks, a possible land blockade involving Iran's neighbors, and further aviation sanctions.dailysabah+1

Jennifer Kavanagh of Defense Priorities argued that Iran has built enough resilience to withstand economic sanctions and that "the real question is whether Washington has the political will to sustain the pressure long enough to force Tehran into concessions." Israel Hayom assessed that as Iran's distress deepens, "Tehran's default response will be to try to raise the price paid by its adversaries and, in this case, by the global economy as well."defensepriorities+1