Iran's Pezeshkian Calls to End War With US While Trump Prepares New Sanctions Push

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday it's time to end the war with the United States. He also claimed Iran already won it.

"It is better that we bring the war to an end now as we are in a position of power and dignity," Pezeshkian told a meeting of doctors, according to Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse. "The whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasises that America has attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure in violation of all regulations and is hated around the world."

The statement comes from a country whose president answers to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and whose own military chief spent the same day promising more fighting, not less.

Major-General Ali Abdollahi, chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, said Tehran remains ready to hit back "across land, sea, air, air defence and cyberspace" against any new threat, calling the response "crushing, punishing and devastating," according to Iranian state media cited by Al Jazeera, the Times of India and Breitbart. IRGC chief Ahmad Vahidi added that Iran has built a "solid defensive shield."

Victory and a war-ending offer, or a country bracing to keep fighting. Pezeshkian's own words suggest both, and that contradiction defines the current moment.

The June deal collapsed, and both sides are pointing fingers

The war between the US, Israel and Iran started in February, according to Channel NewsAsia. A memorandum of understanding reached in June created a 60-day negotiating window. That window expired, according to Breitbart, and fighting resumed along with new US strikes.

Pezeshkian used Friday's remarks to defend that June deal against hardliners in Iran's parliament who accused him of caving to Washington. "They cannot find even a single clause in this agreement that indicates capitulation. All the commitments concern the other side," he said, according to Al Jazeera and the Times of India.

Breitbart also reported a second, more combative Pezeshkian quote from the same day that neither Al Jazeera nor the Times of India included: "We will under no circumstances bow to bullying, and there is no doubt about that. We will stand against them until our last breath and give them a crushing response." Pezeshkian's "end the war" pitch is aimed as much at his domestic hardline critics as it is at Washington.

Trump ditches more strikes for economic warfare, for now

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday what he called an "ECONOMIC D-DAY" against Iran, according to Breitbart, following the collapse of the June agreement. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday the new sanctions campaign would "collapse" the Iranian regime, a quote carried by Courthouse News Service and Channel NewsAsia.

Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that turning to economic pressure doesn't take military options off the table. "No, not at all," he said, per Breitbart. "They have no money. They have no navy. They have no air force. They're not paying their soldiers. They're not paying their police. They have 350% inflation."

Trump also claimed the US has "total control" around the Strait of Hormuz through its naval blockade. Iran is keeping the strait partially shut, and Washington is running a counter-blockade, according to Channel NewsAsia and Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera reported that US media describe secret Navy-protected tanker convoys moving through the strait's southern sector, allowing 5 to 10 million barrels a day to keep flowing.

Iran's Foreign Ministry called the sanctions push "economic terrorism" and "crimes against humanity," saying "the perpetrators and instigators of these sanctions are deserving of trial and punishment," according to Courthouse News Service and Channel NewsAsia. A separate ministry statement dismissed Trump's "Economic D-Day" as "a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs," per Channel NewsAsia.

China weighs in, and a bigger meeting looms

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Friday that "sanctions and pressure will not help resolve the issue," calling instead for "political and diplomatic means," according to Courthouse News Service and Channel NewsAsia. Washington has pressed Beijing and other governments to help isolate Iran's economy.

Channel NewsAsia reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit the White House on September 24, and that Iran is expected to come up in those talks, as it reportedly did when Trump traveled to Beijing in May.

Bessent is set to lay out further details of the sanctions package at a press conference scheduled for Monday, according to Channel NewsAsia. Omani and Iranian foreign ministers spoke by phone Friday about conditions for resuming talks, according to Oman's state news agency as reported by Al Jazeera, but no new negotiating date has been announced.