The head of United States Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, pointed to mounting budgetary pressure on Iran as naval deployments and trade restrictions tied to the United States continued to weigh on the country's economy. Cooper put the figure at $25 billion in lost oil revenue for Tehran.

Roughly $350 million in Iranian-held cryptocurrency assets came under a freeze by federal authorities over the preceding several weeks. In a video statement published on Friday, Cooper assessed that budget pressures were bearing down on both the armed forces and the network of allied groups operating across the region.

According to Cooper's account, certain groups with ties to Iran were channelling money toward the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), while state authorities in Iran were withholding pay and benefits owed to government workers and security forces. These developments unfolded against a backdrop of Washington pressing Tehran for concessions spanning its nuclear activities, within a broader effort to bring the fighting to a close.

Budget pressures had reached a point, Cooper indicated, where payments flowing through Iran's armed forces were being disrupted. Fighters belonging to certain armed factions in the region were, by that account, being denied their wages so that the funds could be redirected toward the IRGC.

Among his claims was the assertion that public-sector workers — a group he said extended to personnel within the country's internal security apparatus — had been denied their wages, retirement payments, and other entitlements by the authorities. According to Cooper, Pentagon and Treasury Department actions have placed $350 million in Iranian cryptocurrency assets under a freeze, a measure that compounds the financial pressure already exerted by the naval blockade.

Vessel attacks along the Strait of Hormuz have drawn attention to the waterway as a pressure point in the broader hostilities, with petroleum supply chains among the areas drawing scrutiny. Cooper attributed the recorded rise in ship attacks to mounting pressure on Iran's armed forces. Figures from the waterway's busiest stretch over the prior week put vessel crossings at roughly 400 and crude volumes at around 100 million barrels.

According to available reports, aerial and drone-launch platforms operated by Iranian forces near the strait faced a lower tempo of targeting by US military action. One official noted the halt was designed to keep tensions from climbing further in the run-up to the November midterm elections. Officials have expressed concern that ongoing strikes along the route could lead shipping operators to avoid it, placing downward pressure on available oil volumes and pushing petroleum prices higher on world markets.

Qatari mediators and the administration were holding for a reply from Tehran on a counterproposal put forward by Washington aimed at bringing the conflict to a close. No decision had yet come from Iranian authorities on the proposal, a person familiar with the matter on the US side indicated. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi received calls from intermediary nations to act without delay, with those intermediaries advising against holding off until after the US midterm elections had passed.

Both parties face a situation in which maintaining the standoff carries economic and military trade-offs, while moving toward an agreement opens a path to reduced tensions.