Khamenei Touts Iran as ‘Foremost Power’ While Rial Sinks and Gulf Tensions Stay High
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is presenting Iran as a top global power and warning that “enemy forces” will be driven from nearby seas, even as the currency hits record lows and reports highlight risks to tankers and chokepoints around the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s leadership is combining sweeping claims of global strength with threats to U.S. and allied forces near its coasts, at a time when the country’s currency and economic pressure are drawing close attention.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said that some describe Iran as the world’s fourth superpower according to worldly calculations, but that by what he called divine calculations, Iran is considered the foremost power in the world.
He also said that in the past, the seas to Iran’s south were a playground for enemy forces. According to his remarks, those enemies now avoid venturing beyond the Arabian Sea because of painful blows inflicted by fighters defending the Strait of Hormuz, and he said the day is near when they will be expelled.
These statements are directed at what Iranian officials describe as enemy forces operating in the Gulf and Arabian Sea. A separate regional account, referring to recent incidents, said remote mining had worked against tankers and that U.S. forces destroyed Fajr‑5 launchers too late. It added that the Strait of Hormuz could be mined from Qeshm Island or from Iran’s eastern coast and mentioned the C‑802 anti‑ship missile in the context of Hormuz.
At the same time, Iran’s currency is under heavy pressure. One report described a rapid collapse of the Iranian currency after two weeks of relative stability. About two weeks after it first crossed the threshold of 2 million rials to the dollar, the currency was trading at about 2.3 million rials per U.S. dollar in the free market, a fall of around 15% in that short period. The same reporting noted that the Iranian currency had been trading over the past two weeks at more than 2 million rials per dollar.
Another assessment put the rate at roughly 243,000 to 244,000 tomans per dollar, and said the currency had more than doubled in a year from around 111,000 tomans per dollar. It added that the official rate remained at about 173,000 tomans, creating a large gap between official and free‑market exchange rates.
For households paid in rials or tomans, such moves erode purchasing power and make imported food, fuel and medicine more expensive. For traders and businesses, the divergence between the official and street rates encourages arbitrage and distorts planning, as some actors can access dollars at preferential terms while others are pushed into the informal market.
Oil markets are reacting to the combination of Gulf tension and stalled talks involving Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). U.S. crude futures gained more than 4%, hitting a session high of $96.44 per barrel, while Brent futures climbed over 4% to $108.75 per barrel, their highest since 15 September. The gains were attributed to stalled U.S.–IRGC peace efforts.
In parallel, Saudi Arabia’s East–West pipeline, which allows crude exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, has restarted oil exports. That line offers a route from Saudi oil fields to the Red Sea, providing some diversification for global supply.
Khamenei has also said that enemy forces do not dare enter the Gulf and that the Arabian Sea would soon be cleared of enemies, according to a Reuters summary.
The mixture of assertive rhetoric, a weakening currency and elevated shipping risk around Hormuz is pushing governments and markets to watch both Iran’s domestic economic steps and its maritime posture. Any further reports of remote mining, damage to tankers or missile deployments near the strait, as well as signs of new currency measures or unrest inside Iran, would shape how seriously Khamenei’s promises to expel foreign navies are taken—and how far oil prices move in response.
Sources
- OSINT