A U.S. campaign to choke off Iran’s oil revenue and sanctions-evasion networks is starting to bite harder inside Iran, according to senior Iranian sources cited by Reuters, adding a fresh economic front to this week’s military escalation around the Strait of Hormuz.
The new angle is not another claim about missiles or mines. It is that Washington’s pressure campaign may now be hitting the parts of Iran’s economy that kept the country functioning through years of sanctions: oil exports, informal financing channels, imported fuel, and the intermediaries that move money and goods around restrictions.
Reuters, carried by Al-Monitor, reported Thursday that three senior Iranian sources said the latest U.S. measures have left Tehran with fewer channels to secure foreign currency or buy goods. The report said Iranian crude loadings have fallen to about 260,000 barrels per day this month, down from about 1.7 million barrels per day a year earlier, citing commodity analytics firm Kpler.
What Changed
Iran has survived sanctions for decades by using front companies, unregistered tankers, informal banking routes and regional trade channels. Reuters reported that the latest U.S. effort is making those workarounds more expensive and less reliable, especially as expanded secondary sanctions target entities doing business with Tehran.
The pressure is showing up in basic economic indicators. Reuters reported that Iran’s rial has fallen from around 1 million to the dollar a year ago to more than 2.2 million now. It also cited one senior Iranian source saying the country has roughly two months of gasoline supply left, despite being an oil producer, because limited refining capacity means it still depends on imports.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said total trade is down between 25% and 35%, with imports hit harder than exports, according to the Reuters report. Official figures cited by Reuters put 12-month average inflation at 69.9%, with food, beverages and tobacco rising at nearly twice that rate.
Why It Matters Now
The economic squeeze is landing as the U.S.-Iran conflict has flared back into open fighting. Reuters reported Wednesday that Washington struck air defenses, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites along Iran’s southern coast. Iran then claimed attacks on U.S.-linked targets across the region.
CBS News reported Thursday that Vice President JD Vance said the United States would not negotiate with Iran while attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz continue. Vance also said U.S. efforts had helped prevent an even sharper gasoline-price shock, while declining to say when pump prices might fall.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the key pressure point. Before the war, roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments moved through the waterway. If Iran cannot sell oil through the blockade, and if it keeps threatening or attacking shipping lanes, the crisis becomes both a military standoff and an economic endurance test.
The Risk
Reuters reported that any sign the pressure campaign is breaking the deadlock could encourage U.S. planners, but it also quoted Iranian sources warning that Tehran could respond with military escalation. That is the central danger: the same measures that may push Iran toward concessions could also push it toward a broader attempt to raise costs for the United States and Gulf states.
There is also a domestic risk inside Iran. Reuters reported that officials are aware an economic meltdown could reignite unrest after nationwide protests were crushed in January. With wages far below basic household spending needs and imports getting more expensive, the financial strain is now part of the security crisis.
For now, the reported shift is clear: Washington is trying to make the war financially unsustainable for Tehran, while Iran is trying to prove it can still threaten shipping and regional stability. That makes the next few weeks less about a single strike and more about which side can absorb pressure longer.
Featured image: Historical image of USS Porter near oil tanker M/V Otowasan in the Strait of Hormuz in 2012. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jonathan Sunderman, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
Sources: Reuters via Al-Monitor; Reuters via Al-Monitor; CBS News.