To date, the US has imposed sanctions on thousands of Iranian individuals and legal entities; however, the Tehran administration continues to bypass these restrictions by rapidly establishing new structures to replace those that have been blocked.

In an assessment citing expert opinions published by the Reuters news agency, the current situation was likened to a game of whack-a-mole.

Whack-a-mole is known as a game of agility and reflexes based on the concept of hitting plastic figures with a mallet as they pop up unexpectedly from their holes.

Speaking to the agency, experts outlined other options that Washington could deploy to increase pressure on Tehran and raise the efficacy of sanctions.

Potential measures include restrictions targeting independent Chinese refineries, known as “teapots,” which account for a quarter of China’s oil refining capacity.

China purchases more than 80% of the oil exported by Iran, and these refineries process the vast majority of those shipments. Nevertheless, these facilities have limited ties to the US financial system, rendering them partially protected against secondary sanctions.

Another option on the table is increasing pressure on major Chinese banks. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has applied secondary sanctions to small firms based in China and Hong Kong accused of executing billions of dollars in transactions for Iranian oil.

The agency has also warned two large banks, though it has not yet included them on its sanctions list.

While taking steps against major banks could deter other financial institutions, such actions carry the risk of Beijing enacting retaliatory measures. Washington seeks to avoid such tension ahead of a potential meeting between US President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in September.

Experts are also evaluating the possibility of enforcing a land blockade with the participation of Iran’s neighbours: Iraq, Türkiye, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Armenia.

The Trump administration holds various leverage mechanisms against such nations, including Pakistan, which is requesting a $10 billion swap line, and Türkiye, which seeks to rejoin the F-35 program. Analysts express, however, that implementing such a blockade on the ground and generating the expected pressure inside Iran would be difficult.

Trump has repeatedly voiced threats to impose secondary tariffs on countries that trade with Iran; however, the US Supreme Court struck down the legal basis for such measures.

On the other hand, a anti-Russia “crushing” sanctions bill passed by the Senate includes new restrictions on Iran and grants Trump tariff authority.

This bill must also pass a vote in the House of Representatives; however, the text faces opposition from both Democrats and certain Republican lawmakers.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced in mid-August that Trump would disclose new measures designed to raise Iran’s economic isolation to an unprecedented level.

Stating that the US President had instructed the re-establishment of the maximum economic pressure policy against Tehran, Bessent said, “We have moved from Epic Fury to Economic Fury.”

Following Bessent’s statements, Bloomberg noted that Tehran has learned to manage the consequences of a naval blockade and thousands of restrictions. According to the agency’s analysts, the principal obstacle facing Washington is the close economic relationship between Iran and China; indeed, Beijing secures more than 90% of Iranian oil exports. Sanctioning the entities facilitating these purchases would directly reduce Tehran’s oil revenues, yet the US is avoiding this step for now.

Maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz remains restricted. On August 11, Iran conveyed its conditions for lifting the blockade in the strait to the US through intermediaries.

Tehran’s conditions included an end to threats and military actions, the lifting of the blockade and sanctions, compensation for damages, and the release of frozen assets.

On August 14, Trump claimed that following the end of the war with Iran, he would declare the Strait of Hormuz to be US territory. Responding to these statements, the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that the Strait of Hormuz could not be seized “by a tweet, an aircraft carrier, an executive order, or a campaign speech.”

US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” has drafted its first construction contract related to Gaza since it was established in January. According to an August 6 report by The Guardian, the contract provides for the construction of a basic 150-person military base where Moroccan troops would be stationed.

Trump established the Board of Peace to carry out his plans for the territory following Israel’s two-year assault on Palestinians in Gaza. The board has begun preparations for the International Stabilization Force that is due to operate in Gaza.

Morocco had agreed to send troops to the International Stabilization Force, which was created to maintain control in Gaza on behalf of Israel and the US.

Construction contract awarded to US firm active in Iraq

The construction contract was awarded to Louisiana-based Arkel International, which previously carried out various projects in Iraq on behalf of the US government.

However, a Board of Peace official said in an email to The Guardian that the contracts had not yet been finalized. “The Board is in the final stages of preparing various contracts. None has yet been finalized,” the official said.

The official said one of the possible contracts covered the construction of facilities for the International Stabilization Force to support the implementation of the security and governance arrangements in the road map. “This contract is one of many that will be necessary for Gaza’s future,” the official said.

150 troops initially, later 5,000

Under the contract, the base for Moroccan troops would be built on a site measuring 100 metres by 120 metres. The facility, which would house troops deployed on rotation from a base in Israel, would be located about two kilometres from the Israeli border.

The base is planned for the 60% of the Gaza Strip that is under direct occupation by the Israeli military.

According to a draft contract previously seen by The Guardian, the facility would later be expanded to accommodate 5,000 International Stabilization Force troops from different countries.

“Smart city” plan scaled back

Trump said in February 2025 that the US would “take over” Gaza and “own” it.

At the Board of Peace’s first meeting in January 2026, Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner unveiled a “master plan” aimed at transforming Gaza into a high-tech coastal “smart city”.

However, the Trump-led board later scaled back its sweeping ambitions for Gaza’s post-war reconstruction and shifted towards a limited pilot project in the southern buffer zone near Rafah.

The plan envisages “humanitarian aid” camps enclosed by “fences”, where Palestinians would be kept under strict control. Critics have described the compounds as “concentration camps”.

Israel has destroyed or damaged about 80% of the structures in Gaza, including homes, apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and mosques, in attacks aimed at making the territory uninhabitable.

Israeli ministers, settler activists and journalists have called for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian population and opened to Jewish settlers.

Israel is reported to have killed at least 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, most of them women and children. Independent estimates indicate that the true death toll could run into the hundreds of thousands.

The Jerusalem District Court has temporarily halted a plan spearheaded by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to construct crocodile-filled moats around prisons housing thousands of Palestinian detainees.

According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, the ruling follows a petition filed by the animal rights organization Let the Animals Live against Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, Ben-Gvir, and the Israeli Prison Service (IPS). The group argued that the project would lead to the mistreatment of the crocodiles and place prison staff in danger.

In a decision announced Sunday, Judge Avraham Rubin stated: “The claims regarding potential harm to the crocodiles warrant examination and justify issuing an order prohibiting the transfer of the animals or the execution of any actions related to locating and preparing them for transfer.”

Neither the petition submitted by the animal rights organization nor the text of Judge Rubin’s ruling made reference to the condition or life-threatening conditions faced by Palestinian prisoners subjected to torture and sexual assault in facilities under Ben-Gvir’s authority.

Noting that the temporary injunction will remain in effect until further notice, the judge granted Silman, Ben-Gvir, and the Israeli Prison Service until Wednesday to submit their defense arguments.

Status of Nile crocodiles was altered

The Israeli government laid the legal groundwork for the project in July when Environmental Protection Minister Silman altered the conservation status of Nile crocodiles. Reclassified out of the protected wild animal category, the reptiles were reassigned to the classification of wild animals “raised in a controlled environment” or “held under management.”

This regulatory shift granted the Israeli Prison Service authority to keep crocodiles around prison perimeters, provided they comply with rules established by the Nature and Parks Authority. Prior to the modification, Nile crocodiles could only be housed in zoos. In its petition, Let the Animals Live also requested the revocation of this status change.

Ben-Gvir had proposed placing crocodiles in water channels encircling prisons under the pretext of preventing Palestinian detainees from escaping. The Israeli minister stated that in formulating his plan, he drew inspiration from an immigrant detention center in the US state of Florida known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

In December, Minister Ben-Gvir published an AI-generated image on his social media account depicting himself holding a crocodile on a leash, accompanied by the caption: “Cursed terrorist, thinking of escaping? Think again.”

Israeli officials defended the proposal, contending that the crocodiles would enhance security measures and lower prison operational costs by reducing the requirement for patrolling personnel. The project was slated for implementation at the Ketziot Prison in the Negev Desert, where authorities had already initiated excavation work on a section of the moat.

9,600 Palestinians held in prisons

Since taking office in December 2022 as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, Ben-Gvir has signed off on measures that significantly harshened the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners. Ben-Gvir has also visited prisons and engaged in humiliating conduct toward detainees.

According to data from the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, approximately 9,600 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons. Thousands of these individuals are detained under “administrative detention” without formal charges or trial.

The commission recorded that 89 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody since the onset of attacks on Gaza in 2023. The fate of dozens of individuals detained from Gaza remains unknown.

In 2024, a Palestinian prisoner was gang-raped by five soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention center, one of the facilities where Palestinians are held. After footage of the incident surfaced, Jewish settlers attempting to support the detained soldiers stormed the facility. Earlier this year, a court dropped the charges against the soldiers.

Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has documented that prison guards, soldiers, and Shin Bet officers have subjected Palestinian detainees to rape, forced insertion of objects into the anus, beatings to the genitals, starvation, electric shocks, and the withholding of medical treatment.