Iran confirms meeting with Pakistani mediators after Trump announces new sanctions

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday the U.S. is entering an “endgame” against Iran, pledging an unprecedented financial campaign to cut off the regime’s remaining economic lifelines and avert the need for more military action.

“At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary,” Bessent wrote in an opinion piece in the Financial Times.

He also argued that President Donald Trump was confronting a threat previous administrations had sought only to manage.

Bessent said the campaign would target countries and entities that buy or transport Iranian oil, facilitate financial transactions, host Iranian flights, maintain ship registries or enable ship-to-ship fuel transfers.

He warned that governments maintaining ties with Tehran risked sharing its economic isolation.

The Treasury chief said the aim was to sever every economic lifeline supporting the Islamic Republic until it is left in “total financial isolation.”

Oil prices fell about 1% Monday as investors took profits ahead of an expected U.S. announcement of additional sanctions on Iran, Reuters reported.

Brent crude futures fell 94 cents, or 1%, to $93.45 a barrel by 2308 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped 92 cents, or 1.06%, to $86.14 a barrel.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to hold a news conference Monday afternoon and has threatened to impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.

This came after President Donald Trump warned Washington will launch the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” against Iran.

Syria and Israel held U.S.-mediated talks in Jordan on Sunday aimed at easing tensions after recent Israeli strikes on Syrian territory, Reuters reported, citing Syria’s state-run SANA news agency.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani led Damascus’ delegation, which also included the heads of Syria’s general and military intelligence services, SANA said.

The talks explored a possible security arrangement, with discussions focused on mechanisms to halt Israeli strikes and arrests and to revive negotiations following Israel’s bombing of Syria’s Abu al-Duhur airport.

Damascus also called for Israeli forces to return to positions held before Dec. 8, 2024, and for the 1974 Disengagement Agreement to be reactivated, while reaffirming that the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are Syrian territory, Reuters said. 

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces had redirected 70 ships and disabled three others Sunday amid the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports.

“A U.S. sailor monitors flight operations aboard the USS John Finn (DDG 113) as the guided-missile destroyer sails in the Arabian Sea and enforces the U.S. blockade against Iran,” the command said in a post shared on X.

As of Aug. 23, U.S. forces have redirected 70 commercial vessels, disabled three and boarded two to ensure compliance, CENTCOM added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF officials held a security assessment Sunday on the threat posed by drones, balloons and kites launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel.

“Israel warns Hamas that if the launches toward Israel do not cease immediately, the IDF will act to increase targeted strikes against those responsible for the launches and will evacuate the population from areas used as launch sites for kites, drones, and balloons,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement posted on X.

The office also said there would be “no return to the state of affairs prior to October 7.”

“Israel will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization or any other element in the Gaza Strip to threaten our communities again and compromise our citizens' sense of security,” the statement said.

Israel's warning came after four kites believed to have crossed from Gaza were found in the Nahal Oz area over the weekend, according to the IDF.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday mocked the United States after President Donald Trump threatened to escalate the “most crushing” economic sanctions against Iran, saying that restrictions from Washington would backfire.

“Importing frozen meat to fix meat prices. Okay, that might work,” Ghalibaf said in a post shared on X.

“What’s the plan for bonds, import frozen yields? Frozen homebuyers for housing? Frozen paychecks for wages?” he questioned before stating that a “frozen foreign policy delivers a frozen economy.”

“The only thing still moving? The Iran boomerang,” Ghalibaf said.

Ghalibaf also shared four images of a character throwing a boomerang labeled “the most crushing economic operation ever.”

Maritime traffic is spiking through through the Strait of Hormuz this weekend as the U.S. Navy escorts oil tankers through the area.

President Donald Trump has declared the strait open despite Iran's efforts to cut off the trade rout.

Fox News chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt reported on the Trump administration’s plan to economically isolate Iran on "Fox Report" on Sunday, saying leaders in Tehran are divided on how to continue the conflict.

This is an excerpt from an opinion article by former U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sonland.

President Donald Trump is finally proposing the Iran policy that our allies have spent decades avoiding: If you want the benefits of doing business with the United States, you cannot also help finance the regime in Tehran.

It really is that simple.

Trump’s "Economic D-Day" is not merely another sanctions package filled with the names of Iranian officials who do not have American bank accounts and never planned to visit Disneyland. The important idea is to punish the foreign countries, banks, refiners, shipping companies and middlemen that keep Iran in business.

They must choose between Iran and America. They should no longer be allowed to choose both.

When I served as U.S. ambassador to the European Union, I watched European governments twist themselves into diplomatic, legal and moral contortions to avoid seriously sanctioning Iran. There was always a deal that took precedence over principle.

One country had an energy contract to protect. Another had companies pursuing Iranian business. Someone else wanted to preserve a diplomatic channel. Brussels was perpetually waiting for another negotiation that would supposedly moderate the regime if only we remained patient, constructive and commercially engaged.

Europe claimed that commerce created leverage. Iran got the commerce and Europe rarely exercised the leverage.

President Donald Trump said during a rally in South Carolina that Iran wants to make a deal "so badly” but that the U.S. does not know if it wants one on Saturday.

Trump went on to double down on his claim that he views the Strait of Hormuz as "an American territory" amid the war with Iran.

Fox News' Trey Yingst says Iran is threatening "seismic" retaliation against the U.S. and regional neighbors that help the U.S. on Sunday.

President Donald Trump is weighing additional sanctions against Tehran as the U.S. effort to cripple the regime's economy continues.

Ret. Air Force Gen. Charles Wald joined Fox News on Saturday to discuss differing opinions among Iran’s leaders.

Negotiations have shown the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be the most radical faction within Tehran's government.

Shell President Colette Hirstius joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" to discuss gas price concerns amid the U.S.-Iran war as well as showcase her company’s made-in-U.S.A. IndyCar race fuel.

Gas prices averaged $4.10 a gallon nationally last week.

Dr. Sheila Nazarian, an Iranian-American who fled Iran as a child, joined "Life, Liberty & Levin" to discuss her home country’s appetite for freedom amid the war with the U.S.

Many U.S. politicians have suggested that fanning the flames of dissent within Iran agaisnt the regime in Tehran could be productive.

As global attention remains fixed on tankers moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a petroleum geologist is warning that the more consequential energy story may be unfolding thousands of feet underground — and could continue long after any political agreement ends the fighting.

Art Berman, a petroleum geologist and energy consultant with more than four decades of industry experience, told Fox News Digital that millions of barrels of Persian Gulf oil production remain shut in and warned that restoring those wells is far more complicated than simply reopening the strategic waterway.

"This is potentially a kind of a world-changing event, even if we resolve the political issues," Berman said.

"The bigger story and the more important one long term is that 8 million barrels of Persian Gulf production is currently shut in and world production is down about 10 million barrels a day," Berman explained.

"We can move tankers around and we can obsess about, you know, are there 4 million barrels getting through or are there 6 million or 9 million or whatever the right number is," he added. "But eventually, those tankers have to be filled with oil."

A White House official, speaking on background, pointed to the sharp decline in oil prices following the signing of the MOU and said the Strait of Hormuz is open, with the U.S. naval blockade in full effect.

Berman's estimate of Gulf shut-ins is broadly consistent with the latest assessment from the International Energy Agency. The IEA said in its Aug. 12, 2026, Oil Market Report, "Gulf oil production rose by a further 2.5 mb/d in July to 23.9 mb/d, still 8.3 mb/d below pre-war levels."

Global oil supply remained 6.3 million bpd below year-earlier levels, according to the agency.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Efrat Lachter.

Fox News chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt reported on the Trump administration’s new plan to pressure Iran economically as well as Iran's own efforts to avoid economic blowback on "Fox Report."