Speaking at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Trump declared the Strait of Hormuz American territory as he touted the US campaign against Iran, telling the crowd the United States had acted to stop Tehran obtaining a nuclear weapon. It completes a progression this tracker has followed for a week: on Day 168 he said he would soon declare it, on Day 172 he posted an image of it as a new US territory, and on Day 175 he stated it as fact. The legal position has not moved with the rhetoric — the waterway runs through Iranian and Omani territorial waters and is governed as an international waterway under the law of the sea.

[Fox]

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that the United States was preparing to impose the toughest sanctions in history on Iran. It follows Trump’s announcement of what he called the most crushing economic operation ever, described to Newsmax as a combination of "economic isolation like the world has never seen before" together with the continued blockade keeping anything from entering or leaving Iranian ports. Vice President Vance called economic pressure the administration’s most effective tool against Iran while cautioning that applying it is a delicate balance. Washington also urged China to support the campaign.

[The Hill] [Al Jazeera] [CNN]

Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Ali Abdollahi — appointed in the command reshuffle logged on Day 164 — warned in a Friday message to the acting defence minister that Iran’s military would confront new threats from enemies with "revolutionary, crushing, regret-inducing and devastating responses," according to Iranian state media. The foreign ministry condemned the threatened economic campaign as unlawful and warned that those who order or implement the levies are "liable to prosecution and punishment." The IRGC said it could deploy more destructive weapons if the war restarts, and Araghchi dismissed the sanctions threat outright.

[Fox] [CNN]

China responded to the threatened economic campaign by saying sanctions do not "fit the interest of any party." The refusal matters more than the language: Washington has been asking Beijing to back the pressure campaign, and China is the principal remaining buyer of the Iranian crude the blockade is meant to stop. Without it, the economic isolation Trump described has a hole in it the size of Iran’s largest customer.

[CNN]

Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a televised speech that the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until the American commitments set out in the memorandum of understanding are implemented, listing the release of Iran’s frozen assets abroad, the lifting of sanctions on its oil and gas sales, and the lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and vessels. The memorandum he is invoking expired unextended on Day 171 — Tehran continues to treat its terms as the standing price regardless.

[CBS]

US petrol prices are running nearly a dollar higher than a year ago with traffic through Hormuz still low, and AAA noted this August could be the most expensive on record for the month, forcing some households to cut back. Global crude reached nearly $94 a barrel, its highest since late July, after the economic warfare threat. Trump argued the strait will not be as important as it was in the past, citing a record number of oil pipelines under construction — an argument that concedes the waterway is not reopening soon.

[CNN] [CBS]

Tracker status holds at WAR RESUMED. Day 175 completes the substitution this archive has tracked since the memorandum expired: military escalation has been replaced by economic warfare and territorial assertion, neither of which requires Iranian agreement and neither of which has opened the strait. US strikes on Iran remain paused since August 1, twenty-one days. Both principals are now threatening measures — sanctions on one side, devastating responses on the other — rather than negotiating terms, and the one party whose cooperation the sanctions campaign needs has publicly declined to give it.