Iran warns of 'earth-shattering blow' as Araghchi hits back at Germany over 100-billion-euro energy-cost claim
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has warned of an 'earth-shattering blow' against anyone who harms Iranians, after Germany's chancellor said the war had added more than 100 billion euros to Europe's energy costs.
Iran's foreign minister has warned that any renewed attack on his country would be met with a devastating military response, in a sharp exchange with Germany over the economic cost of the war in the Middle East. Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that the idea of red lines constraining Tehran's response was now a thing of the past.
The warning came in a post on X responding to remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Friday that the war had added more than 100 billion euros to energy costs for European businesses and consumers over the past eight months. Merz, speaking at the end of a visit to South Korea, argued that Europe had a direct economic interest in bringing the conflict to a swift end.
Araghchi dismissed the complaint and turned Merz's own record back on him, recalling that the German chancellor had welcomed the first round of American and Israeli strikes on Iran last year. Merz had at the time described those strikes as Israel doing, in his words, dirty work on Europe's behalf.
"100bn Euro is nothing compared to the Earth-shattering blow Iran's Powerful Armed Forces will deal against those who dare harm our people," Araghchi wrote. "Red lines are a thing of the past," he added, in one of the bluntest warnings from a senior Iranian official in recent weeks.
Merz had coupled his cost estimate with a call for diplomacy, telling reporters that the conflict could not be settled by military means alone and that Germany was stepping up diplomatic efforts to end it. He said businesses and households across Europe had paid the extra sum because energy had become more expensive as a result of the fighting.
The exchange underlines how the war has moved beyond the Gulf and into European domestic politics. The Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of the world's traded oil, has been at the centre of the conflict since the second round of fighting began on 28 February, and repeated attacks on shipping have kept crude prices elevated. Brent crude settled on Friday at 117.64 dollars a barrel, its highest close since late April.
Shipping data points to the scale of the disruption. British maritime monitor UKMTO recorded at least 35 attacks on vessels in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz during October, the highest monthly total since the war began, while Iran's Revolutionary Guard claimed this week that four tankers had caught fire after striking mines or hitting what it called unauthorised routes.
The United States has pushed back on some of Tehran's claims. American military officials denied an Iranian assertion that its forces had destroyed a US unmanned sea vessel in the strait, saying all such craft in the region had been accounted for, and US Central Command said its forces had cleared the strait's internationally recognised transit routes of sea mines.
Diplomatic efforts continue in parallel with the rhetoric. A reported draft framework for negotiations would see Iran's highly enriched uranium transferred abroad or reduced in enrichment level, with the strait reopening within seven days of an initial understanding, although no agreement has been confirmed by either side.
What happens next may hinge on the American political calendar. President Donald Trump has said the war will be wrapped up soon, while reports have suggested new strikes could follow the 3 November midterm elections. For now, the exchange between Tehran and Berlin shows that the war's costs, and the arguments about who should bear them, are only intensifying.
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