ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Monday stressed the “vital and strategic necessity” of government support for the country's defense sector, describing it as key to overcoming economic pressure on Tehran as the US gears up for a large-scale sanctions campaign.

On Wednesday, Washington announced an economic warfare campaign against Iran, warning that it would target parties that allegedly provide a lifeline to the Iranian economy.

The move, described by US President Donald Trump as an “economic D-Day,” follows on from the original “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.

"The synergy between the IRGC and the government is the password to overcome multi-layered sanctions and strengthen national resilience," the IRGC said in a statement, while noting that Iran is in an “unequal and all-out battle” with the US and Israel.

“In such circumstances, the government's decisive support for the national defense fronts and strengthening social resilience is not a choice, but a vital and strategic necessity, and this support is a decisive component in the history-making victories of Islamic Iran,” the IRGC added.

On Saturday, senior IRGC commander and secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezai said Tehran has warned regional countries of being considered enemies if they join Washington in “the economic war.”

“America has understood well that if it implements its threats against Iran's infrastructure, it will face heavy strategic blows to its energy bottlenecks and vital interests,” IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said, as cited by the state broadcaster IRIB.

Mohebbi stressed Washington’s failure in “many of its declared goals, including the symbolic opening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

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 US President Donald Trump claims costs the country $500 million daily.

During the latest phase of the US war with Iran, 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 the restoration of free navigation in the international waterway.