TEHRAN / DUBAI: As it steps up efforts to shore up its economy under pressure from the US blockade, Iran on Sunday threatened a more forceful response to any further US attacks after Tehran targeted American warships in their latest round of clashes.
“The Americans must have understood that the era of proportionate responses has come to an end,” said Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
The US campaign to throttle Iran’s economy by blockading its oil exports and stopping sanctions evasion is growing increasingly difficult to withstand, three senior Iranian sources told Reuters.
Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said that Tehran planned to respond to US economic pressure with reforms and rejected the notion that sanctions would cause it to change course.
Early on Sunday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked a US naval drone trying to enter the strait. They claimed the warships had been “forced to retreat” after “suffering damage”, but Centcom said an aircraft carrier and a destroyer successfully evaded the attacks.
In an interview, Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said Kharg Island had been hit around 550 times in previous months but continued to operate.
Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2026
