Saudi Aramco is routing crude around the Strait of Hormuz via its East-West pipeline as the Iran-related crisis has cut shipping through the strait to a tenth of pre-conflict levels, Chief Executive Amin Nasser said on Tuesday.
"The ongoing geopolitical crisis continues to aggravate the biggest supply shock in history," Nasser said, as the Saudi oil giant reported a 42% jump in second-quarter profit.
"We continue to optimize the flexibility of the East-West pipeline," Nasser said.
The pipeline gives Saudi Arabia an alternative route for crude exports, carrying oil from the kingdom's main producing areas in the east to the Red Sea and away from the Strait of Hormuz.
Nasser said Aramco had "managed risks effectively for some time" and that the Saudi government was also working to address risks to oil shipments.
"The government is tackling this risk and that has never limited our option to go through Bab el-Mandab," he said.
Aramco's East-West pipeline and global inventories have helped ease the supply shock caused by the crisis, lowering the net loss to around 1.8 billion barrels, Nasser said.
Strait losses mount weekly
"Current trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz are at a tenth of pre-conflict levels and the world will continue to lose more than 100 million barrels for each week the strait is closed," Nasser said.
The world has lost more than 2.6 billion barrels of oil destined for a number of critical industries as a result of the crisis, he said.
An average of 11 million barrels per day of liquids supply had been removed, while Asia's crude oil imports fell by around 6 million barrels per day at the peak of the crisis, Nasser said.
"If the strait were open today it would take up to 18 months at an average rate of 2.1 million barrels a day to replenish depleted inventories," he said.
Nasser also warned that pressure was building elsewhere in the global energy system, saying the global refining system was "stretched heavily."
"There is a disconnect between futures and physical markets," Nasser said, pointing to strong refining margins that reflected tightness in refined products.
"If refineries were to suffer any major unplanned or prolonged shutdown the global energy supply system could face more severe pressure," he said.
Nasser said Aramco continued to hope for "a resolution that restores normal shipping and stabilizes the market," but warned that a recovery would not be immediate.
"Normalization will take time," he said.
The report described the trend as the emergence of a "survival economy," in which even the smallest household possessions have become tradable assets as families struggle with soaring inflation and shrinking purchasing power.
Online classified advertisements, according to ILNA, increasingly feature offers to sell used work shoes and clothing, empty perfume bottles and natural hair for extensions, alongside listings advertising the rental of property deeds, salary slips and other financial guarantees.
From laptops to perfume bottles
The agency also highlighted growing demand for laptop rentals, with users seeking temporary access to devices for basic tasks such as typing documents, using Microsoft Office software or attending online classes.
"What may initially appear strange or even humorous actually reflects declining purchasing power, changing consumption patterns and households' efforts to generate cash," ILNA wrote.
The shift, The report said, illustrates how ownership is increasingly giving way to renting, while everyday items are being used until the very end of their economic value.
The findings come as inflation continues to weigh on Iranian households. According to the Statistical Center of Iran, annual inflation reached 66% in the Iranian month ending in late July, while year-on-year inflation stood at 87.9%.
A 'survival economy'
The growing number of advertisements, the report said, reflects a broader transformation in household finances, where assets once considered worthless or purely personal are increasingly being converted into immediate sources of income.
The agency said many sellers now bundle together low-value household items to improve their chances of making a sale, while advertisements offering natural hair have also become more common, with prices ranging from negotiable sums to several million rials depending on length, color and quality.
The report follows other recent signs of mounting financial pressure, including the spread of installment payments for healthcare and pharmaceuticals, as many Iranian families struggle to cover everyday expenses.
The expansion of the market for second-hand goods, rentals and personal assets, ILNA said, reflects a growing effort by households to generate cash in an economy where almost anything can become a source of income.
Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat, the judiciary's news outlet said, were executed on Monday, after Iran's Supreme Court upheld their death sentences.
According to Mizan, the two men transmitted “coordinates, images and information about Iranian military and security sites to officers from Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and affiliated communication channels” during the 12-day and 40-day wars in 2025 and 2026.
The pair, the report said, were identified and arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' intelligence organization but did not specify when, where or how they were detained.
The judiciary outlet also said Behzad maintained direct contact with the administrator of a Telegram channel linked to Israel and supported the US and Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Mizan cited Behzad's confessions as evidence, although rights groups have for years documented that Iranian authorities have extracted confessions under coercion, torture or harsh detention conditions.
Iranian authorities use broadly worded charges such as espionage, acting against national security, armed rebellion, enmity against God and corruption on earth to crush dissent and remove political opponents.
Human rights organizations say these labels are routinely applied to protesters, dissidents and political prisoners to portray them as security threats and provide a legal pretext for execution.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN experts have documented repeated cases in which such convictions were issued by revolutionary courts after grossly unfair or highly expedited proceedings, with defendants denied meaningful access to lawyers and verdicts based on torture-tainted forced confessions.
Charges against Safvat
Safvat, Mizan said, photographed Iranian air defense systems from rooftops during the 12-day war and sent the images through communication channels linked to Israel.
The outlet said some of the locations he photographed were later bombed. Without providing evidence, it also alleged Safvat had direct contact with Mossad in some instances and sent messages to Iran International.
The court, according to Mizan, sentenced both men to death based on what it described as “explicit confessions, technical evidence, recovered messages and other evidence.” The sentences were upheld by the Supreme Court before being carried out on Monday.
Wider crackdown
Iran has intensified arrests, prosecutions and executions in recent months, with authorities sentencing or executing dozens of people on charges including espionage, involvement in protests and membership of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK).
Human rights groups and activists say the authorities have expanded the crackdown following recent military confrontations, arguing that the campaign is intended to deter renewed public unrest over Iran's deepening economic and political crises.
Iran's latest wave of public hangings of protesters amounts to "killings" and "murders" that form part of a continuing crime against humanity, former United Nations prosecutor Professor Payam Akhavan told Iran International's Eye for Iran.
“What we actually have in Iran are arbitrary executions. These are killings. They are murders,” Akhavan said. "Specifically, the case can be made that this is a crime of extermination, given the large scale of the killings."
