The U.S. Is Doubling Down On Economic Pressure Against Iran. Tehran Vows ‘Devastating Response’ To Threats.

Iran vowed a "devastating" response to recent remarks from top U.S. officials about the Trump administration's intention to double down economic pressure against Tehran.

"Iran's armed forces will respond to the enemy's new threats with crushing, punishing and devastating responses," said Major General Ali Abdollahi, chief of staff of the country's armed forces, according to local media.

Elsewhere, the country's parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, who was the chief negotiator with Washington earlier this year, said that also meant the Trump administration concluded it could not beat Iran militarily. "We must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them," Qalibaf said. He accused the U.S. and Israel of conducting what he described as "cognitive" warfare.

The remarks come after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the decision to double down on economic pressure against Iran likely means there won't be a return to active military conflict.

"If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart," Bessent told CNBC on Thursday.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. will carry out an "economic D-Day" against Iran.

In a social media post, Trump said that Washington will launch the "most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country."

"This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale," Trump said, also threatening large "economic consequences" for "ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran."

"This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide," Trump added.

Iran had already dismissed the remarks, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi calling it a diversion from America's own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs."

"Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat—and enmity of Iranians. US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide," Araghchi added, citing an article noting that the U.S. national debt has crossed the $40 trillion mark.