NEW DELHI — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned Friday that the pressure campaign against his country has entered what he called a critical and dangerous phase, linking the escalation directly to the aftermath of military strikes carried out by the United States and Israel earlier this year.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the BRICS summit in India, Pezeshkian said Tehran has endured years of severe sanctions, but that the situation has sharply deteriorated since February, when US and Israeli forces struck Iranian targets, igniting a broader conflict across the Middle East.

“This pressure has reached a critical and dangerous stage in recent months following the military aggression by the United States and Israel,” Pezeshkian told reporters, according to comments carried by wire agencies.

The Iranian leader placed his country’s predicament within a wider critique of the current global climate, describing the present period as one of extraordinary complexity. He argued that the use of economic pressure as a geopolitical tool only deepens that instability rather than resolving it.

Iran’s economy, already weakened by decades of international sanctions targeting its nuclear program and other activities, has faced additional strain since the February conflict. Analysts have noted that the war added fresh disruption to trade, energy infrastructure, and investor confidence at a time when Tehran was already navigating a fragile fiscal position.

Pezeshkian’s remarks come as he prepares to join other leaders of the BRICS bloc — which includes Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, among newer members — for discussions expected to touch on trade cooperation and alternatives to Western-dominated financial systems. Iran, which joined BRICS in 2024, has increasingly looked to the bloc as a diplomatic and economic counterweight amid its standoff with Washington.

Neither the White House nor the Israeli government had issued a public response to Pezeshkian’s comments as of Friday afternoon.