Amid escalating tension between Washington and Tehran, Iran on Saturday said the new US sanctions amount to a “declaration of war” against all nations, not just Iran, even as US President Donald Trump claimed he doesn’t know who to “deal with” in the country, calling it “one of my biggest problems.” Earlier today, Trump said that Iran “would love to make a deal. But they are not ready to make the right deal, in my opinion.” As the war nears a six-month duration, both countries appear entrenched in their positions.

Iran has hit out at new US economic sanctions, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei calling them a “declaration of war” against all nations, not just Tehran, according to remarks carried by Iran’s Fars news agency.

Baghaei said the sanctions amounted to an attempt by Washington to exert “extraterritorial sovereignty over all independent UN member states.” He argued that no government has the right to force foreign banks, businesses, or airports operating under their own sovereign jurisdiction to avoid legitimate trade with a third country.

Calling such secondary sanctions baseless in international law, Baghaei said they violate “the fundamental principle of sovereign equality” enshrined in Article 2, Paragraph 1 of the UN Charter. He described economic coercion as an “international offence and a wrongful act,” and warned that pairing sanctions with a naval blockade reduces other nations’ sovereignty to something “temporary and conditional upon the whims and caprices of another power.”

Yielding to such pressure, he added, would result in “the total erosion of national sovereignty” and mark “a catastrophic return to blatant, full-scale colonialism.”

Trump on Saturday said Iran is not ready to agree to what he considers the right deal. He also said US military options in the region remained open. “It just means that we’re seeing what happens,” he said. “They have no money, they have no navy, they have no air force. They are not paying their soldiers, they are not paying their police. They have 350% inflation. So we are just going to see what happens.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Friday that the war with the US would eventually have to end. “It is better to end the war today, while we are strong and honored, while the entire world acknowledges our victory and emphasizes that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals and infrastructure and is hated around the world,” he said.

Speaking at the 31st General Assembly of the Islamic Association of Iran’s Medical Community, Pezeshkian also acknowledged growing public dissatisfaction as the war and economic pressures make everyday life more difficult. “If there is dissatisfaction or grievance in society, it means that we have not acted as we should have,” he said.