Iran warns neighbours against backing US sanctions, threatens to target oil routes

At a moment when economic pressure and military posturing are converging across the Middle East, Iran's newly appointed security chief has issued a warning that reaches well beyond the region's borders — any nation that joins America's campaign to isolate Tehran economically may find its own interests, particularly those tied to oil shipping, in Iran's crosshairs. The threat, delivered through state media by Mohsen Rezaei, reflects a familiar but deepening pattern: great power rivalry expressed through the language of energy and geography, with the Strait of Hormuz — carrying one-fifth of the