Iranian leaders are publicly addressing the economic damage from the six-month war with the United States, as President Masoud Pezeshkian said foreign trade had fallen nearly 35% under U.S. sanctions and a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei urged the government to confront inflation, unemployment and pressures on prices and markets. The warnings accompanied military threats and competing claims over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway whose disruption can affect global energy markets. President Donald Trump’s administration has intensified an effort described as an “economic D-Day,” warning countries to sever business ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions (penalties imposed on third parties). The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Egypt’s Banque Misr over business with Tehran and proposed restricting its United Arab Emirates branches from dollar transactions, while separately targeting a Hong Kong entity and a person linked to Iran’s Bank Melli. Egypt’s central bank said the measure applied only to Banque Misr UAE’s dollar transactions with correspondent banks and that it was consulting U.S. officials. Iran’s annual inflation reached 66% last month, though Pezeshkian said the country sold about 90 million barrels of oil during a June memorandum of understanding that temporarily permitted Iranian oil sales. Diplomatic efforts continued with Qatar’s prime minister visiting Tehran, while shipping data showed only seven commodity vessels crossed the strait on Thursday, compared with 17 the previous day and a 10-day average of 15.