ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Mohsen Rezai, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said Tehran has warned regional countries of being considered enemies if they join Washington in “the economic war.”

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION” against Iran, describing the move as economic warfare and warning that any country that provides a lifeline to Iran’s economy will also face “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”

The move echoes Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” on Iran, under which Washington intensified sanctions on Tehran to restrict its nuclear program. The campaign was reinstated in January 2025 following Trump’s return to office.

“We tell all neighboring countries not to participate in the economic war with the United States, or we will consider them enemies,” Rezai said in an interview.

“If the neighboring countries of Iran cooperate with the Americans in the economic war, not a single drop of oil will leave the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and we will also target other routes through which oil is exported from the Persian Gulf,” he added.

Iran has shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway where roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil is transported as a means in its war against the US and Israel, sharply driving up oil prices. The US in turn has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports which Trump claims costs the country $500 million daily.

According to Rezai, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “promised Trump that if Iran is subjected to economic sanctions for six months or two to three months, it will surrender.”

“However, Iran has learned from past experiences how to overcome sanctions and continue selling oil,” he said.

During the latest US-Israel war with Iran which erupted in late February, Iran launched near-daily retaliatory strikes against US interests across the region, including Gulf countries, the Kurdistan Region, and Iraq.

The warring parties reached a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June but it collapsed 21 days later after the US claimed Iran struck a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.

One of the main Washington conditions in the MoU was free navigation in the international waterway.