live US Vows 'Toughest Sanctions In History' Against Iran

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels based in Yemen claimed they launched successful drone attacks on airport and an oil facility in the Najran region of Saudi Arabia, near the Yemeni border, on August 20.

The group "successfully carried out two military operations using drones: the first targeted a sensitive Saudi enemy site at Najran Airport, while the second targeted the Aramco facility in Najran," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said on Telegram.

There was no confirmation from Saudi authorities or Aramco, the state-owned oil giant.

The statement came not long after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) asserted that Saudi Arabia would be "unable to contain" the Houthis, a US-designated terrorist organization.

Yemen descended into civil war in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, ousting the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government. A 2022 truce had mostly held until recently.

In July, a spate of attacks began after the Houthis welcomed an Iranian plane in Sanaa. They later announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia and launched attacks targeting Saudi ships, airports, and oil facilities.

The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) says that the aircraft carrier USS George Washington has arrived in the Arabian Sea.

The Arabian Sea connects in the north to the Gulf of Oman and then to the Strait of Hormuz.

CENTCOM posted a photograph on X on August 20 of the carrier’s crew on deck in the Arabian Sea and said the George Washington Carrier Strike Group had entered the command’s area of responsibility the previous day and would operate in the region as part of its scheduled deployment.

The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and NBC News reported that the USS George Washington was being sent to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln. CNN cited a US official as saying the rotation had been planned in advance.

The move comes amid reports of food and supply shortages, plumbing problems, declining morale, and mental-health concerns aboard the Lincoln after months at sea.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said reports of difficult conditions aboard the ship had been “completely misrepresented” and that the military was doing everything possible to support the crew.

The Abraham Lincoln left San Diego in November 2025 and has spent more than eight months deployed, including more than 200 consecutive days without a substantial port call. US carrier deployments typically last about six to nine months, although they can be extended during wartime.

A tanker traveling through the Gulf of Aden was seized by six armed people and diverted toward Somalia, according to the shipping security monitor United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO).

The vessel had been heading west when it reported being approached by an unauthorized craft about 136 nautical miles east of Mukalla, Yemen, UKMTO said on August 20.

The armed group subsequently boarded the tanker and took control of it.

UKMTO gave no further details and the safety of the crew remains unclear.

Iranian authorities have executed another defendant in connection with the deadly unrest in Isfahan in January, marking the fifth execution linked to a single high-profile case arising from widespread protests against the Islamic republic's leadership.

The Iranian judiciary announced on August 20 that Qaem Hosseini, who went by the alias "Arian," was executed in the early hours of the morning.

Authorities identified Hosseini as a foreign national. Earlier reports noted that his cousin and co-defendant, Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi, was an Afghan citizen.

Hosseini was convicted of “corruption on earth,” the most serious offense under Iran’s Islamic jurisprudence; moharebeh (waging war against God); acting against national security; and destruction of public property.

State prosecutors alleged that Hosseini played an active role during the January 8 unrest at Isfahan's Alikhani Square, where four special forces officers were killed.

Hosseini's execution brings the total number of people put to death in the Alikhani Square case to five. At least eight other defendants in the same case currently face potential execution.

Since the start of the war with the United States and Israel on February 28, Iran has witnessed a surge in executions of people human rights groups consider political prisoners -- from demonstrators to alleged members of banned groups and those convicted of spying.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Iranian authorities executed at least 56 people on security-related and political charges between March 19 and August 5. This total includes at least 27 protesters convicted over their involvement in antiestablishment unrest.

According to Amnesty International, Iran conducts the second most executions of any country in the world behind China.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States will impose "the toughest sanctions in history" on Tehran and suggested plans to turn up the economic pressure mean major US military attacks on Iran are unlikely to resume soon.

"It is a one-two punch. ⁠We have the blockade [on Iranian ports], and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history," Bessent told US network CNBC on August 20. "It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this regime."

Bessent's comments came a day after President Donald Trump threatened Iran with “Economic Warfare and Isolation on a tremendous scale” and warned that any country providing support to Iran will face severe economic fallout.

In addition to pressure on Tehran, "ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform late on August 19.

"This is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world," Bessent said. "And we are going to [allies] and saying you are either with us or against us."

Neither Trump nor Bessent offered much detail.

Bessent told CNBC he would hold a press conference on August 24 "to talk about exactly what we're going to do."

As oil prices rose on August 20, Bessent said he believed oil markets were "misinterpreting what this economic pressure means. If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart."

"Kinetic" in this context refers to military action.

Trump's warnings came in a social media post in which he said Tehran had failed to agree to a deal with United States.

That post came hours after Trump said that negotiations with Iran could possibly resume "at some point" but expressed satisfaction with the current state of affairs, saying, “Right now, I think the situation is so good."

A 60-day negotiating period established under a US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in June expired earlier this week. The MOU was intended to establish a framework for ending the conflict, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and restoring freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States says Iran violated the June understanding by attacking neutral commercial vessels in the strait in July, prompting renewed US military action. The US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28.

This blog entry has been updated. With reporting by AFP and Reuters.

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament, held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Al-Zaidi on August 19, the first day of his visit to Iraq.

Qalibaf described the purpose of his visit as "to strengthen the new order in the region and accelerate the strengthening of cooperation between all countries in the region without foreign interference."

However, efforts to disarm Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups have become a prominent issue in relations between Baghdad and Washington in recent months.

The Iraqi government, under pressure from the United States, has given these groups until September 30 to hand over their weapons. This date coincides with the end of the US-led international coalition mission against Islamic State.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation says that the damage caused during the 40-day war with the United States and Israel to "residential units, commercial premises, and people's belongings throughout Iran except for the capital" is estimated at more than 37 trillion tomans (approximately $196 billion).

An official of the foundation, Majid Jodi, told the state-run IRNA news agency on August 19 that more than 140,000 damage assessment files had been filed so far, of which about 110,000 are related to homes and commercial units, and about 35,000 are related to damage to people's livelihoods and belongings.

Jodi said that 25 Iranian provinces suffered damage during the war, with provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah, and Kurdistan hit the hardest.

The foundation's statistics do not include damage to infrastructure, industrial and military facilities, or the complete statistics of damage in Tehran.

The upward trend in global oil prices continued as the fate of negotiations regarding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz became more uncertain, and the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil increased by 1 percent to $92 on August 19 compared to the previous day.

US oil prices also reached $85 per barrel. These figures are the highest oil prices in the past two weeks.

On August 17, US President Donald Trump said, "There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran."

At the same time, tensions have increased in recent days in the Strait of Hormuz with the continued attacks on several ships and the UAE's announcement that it will counter new missile attacks from Iran.

NATO said it was prepared to respond to any threat and take the necessary action to defend its members after a report said Iran had considered targeting US military assets in Bulgaria and Cyprus if its conflict with the United States escalated further.

An unnamed NATO official, speaking to Reuters, also said that NATO's deterrence and defense posture was "strong and effective."

The comments came in response to a report published by the Financial Times, which cited sources inside the Iranian government as saying Tehran had considered possible strikes against targets in Europe, including Bulgaria and Cyprus, if Washington escalated the conflict. The report did not say that an Iranian attack was imminent.

Bulgaria last month allowed US military refueling aircraft to use Bezmer Air Base. Cyprus is also home to British military bases and has played a strategic role during regional tensions and military operations.

The Financial Times further reported, citing Iranian sources, that Tehran had separately considered the possibility of attacking undersea fiber-optic cables in the Strait of Hormuz in the event of further escalation.

Responding to the report, the NATO official told Reuters that the alliance was "prepared to address any threat" and would "take necessary action to defend all its members," adding: "Our deterrence and defense posture is strong and effective."

The remarks underscore NATO's concern about the possibility that an escalation between Iran and the United States could expand beyond the Middle East and potentially affect NATO member states or military facilities used by Western forces.

With reporting by Reuters

Iranian authorities have moved against the popular online platform Azad, accusing it of publishing “falsehoods” and signaling what an Iranian political activist and commentator says could be a broader crackdown on independent Persian-language YouTube channels.

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