TEHRAN — Iran's top security official warned Saturday that any country joining the United States' expanded sanctions campaign against the Islamic Republic will be treated as an enemy, as President Masoud Pezeshkian defended a stalled June memorandum with Washington and Pakistan's army chief prepared to visit Tehran on Monday.

Mohsen Rezai, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state television that Tehran had a message for neighboring governments: "We declare to all countries ... do not join the economic war waged by the United States. Any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy." Countries that refused to distance themselves from Washington, he said, would have their interests harmed.

The warning lands days after the United Arab Emirates announced it was suspending all trade with Tehran, following a phone call between President Trump and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC the campaign would become "the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world." Washington was telling all nations, Bessent added, "you are either with us or against us."

Pezeshkian's defense

In a speech carried by state agency IRNA early Sunday, Pezeshkian defended the memorandum of understanding signed with Washington in June — often called the Islamabad memorandum for the mediation role played by Pakistan — as the best path out of what he described as a state of "neither war nor peace."

"There is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation," Pezeshkian said. "The supreme leader sets the policies, and we will follow that path." Both sides declared the deal abandoned last week after its 60-day deadline expired without progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Pezeshkian also acknowledged domestic strain. "I understand we have many problems in society right now," he said. "We are trying to prevent these as much as we can." The International Monetary Fund projects Iranian inflation will reach nearly 70 percent by year end, and the economy is forecast to shrink more than 5 percent.

Islamabad's role

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmael Baghaei confirmed Sunday that Pakistan's army chief would arrive in Tehran on Monday, a visit he framed as part of "strengthening Iran-Pakistan bilateral cooperation." Pakistani mediators helped broker the June accord. China, Iran's largest trading partner, has already rebuffed Washington's call for cooperation, saying it opposes "illegal unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law and are not authorised by the UN Security Council."

The other side

Rezai's claim that Iran retains leverage — "We have not yet attacked any American economic interests," he said — is difficult to square with conditions at home. The Associated Press reported rice prices in Tehran 60 percent above prewar levels and beef 150 percent higher, with a Labor Ministry official putting job losses at more than 1 million by late May. Vice President JD Vance said last week the war had entered a "new phase where the most effective tool that we have is the economic pressure that we can apply to them."

The Pakistani army chief's talks in Tehran on Monday will be a first test of whether the neighbors Iran has just threatened will maintain the diplomatic ties that its sanctions-evasion economy depends on.