DUBAI/CAIRO : Iranian leaders are acknowledging the economic toll of war with the United States, with the supreme leader calling on the government to address the hardship while the president reported foreign trade has shrunk 35 percent due to the American sanctions and blockade. The warnings came even as other leaders threaten the US with military retaliation and declarations that the Iranian navy maintains control of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway giving Iran leverage through its ability to disrupt global energy markets.

Iran's president insisted on Wednesday that the United States would achieve nothing with its new sanctions campaign after Washington laid out plans to collapse the country's…

The U.S. has shifted to a campaign of economic warfare, after a dozen waves of airstrikes in July failed to force Tehran to abandon its claim to Hormuz.