Bessent Vows 'Economic D-Day' Sanctions Against Iran
Bessent Vows 'Economic D-Day' Sanctions Against Iran
The News
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is set to unveil a new round of sanctions on Iran on Monday that he calls an "economic D-Day" — "the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary."
Bessent posted that line on X on Sunday night, hours before the announcement, and made the same argument in a Financial Times piece warning that countries which "calculate appeasement of the regime to be a safer choice should reconsider," according to Newsquawk's market summary published by ZeroHedge.
The package follows President Trump's threat to punish any nation that gives Tehran "any type of lifeline." Iran says the measures are illegal and will fail, and has warned it will treat any country that joins them as an enemy.
Timeline
The war with Iran begins. Washington launches its economic pressure campaign under the banner "Operation Economic Fury," including a naval blockade of Iranian ports aimed at stopping oil exports, alongside long-standing sanctions on Iran's oil, shipping and financial sectors.
The UAE announces an indefinite trade embargo on Iran after accusing Iranian forces of firing two ballistic missiles at the country. Tehran denies it. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf says the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until the US lifts its blockade and ends sanctions.
Trump announces on Truth Social what he calls the "most crushing economic operation" against Iran, saying Tehran "failed to take" the chance to make a deal and now faces "economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale." He writes: "ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences." He calls it "an ECONOMIC D-DAY."
China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian responds in Beijing: "Imposing sanctions and pressuring do not help to solve the issue."
Bessent tells CNBC the US will apply "the toughest sanctions in history." "It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history," he says. "It is going to work in Iran, and we are going to collapse this regime."
Tehran threatens retaliation against any country that signs on to the US measures.
Bessent posts on X: "We are now entering the endgame. As dawn begins an economic D-Day."
The sanctions announcement is expected. Markets trade cautiously ahead of Bessent's speech, with Nasdaq futures underperforming and the dollar and Treasurys firmer, per Newsquawk.
Reactions
Bessent framed the campaign as a loyalty test for the rest of the world. "We're going to them and saying: You're either with us or against us," he told CNBC. "If you insist on doing business with them — either transferring money, buying oil, doing seaborne ship transport — then the US Treasury and the US government, they will put its full might and force towards enforcing against you." He called the strategy "the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world."
In his Sunday post he wrote: "President Trump has dismantled Iran's military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories and buried its nuclear program." He added that the Islamic Republic "has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees" and that "those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington."
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei called the US move "an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty" against UN member states, saying no state can force foreign banks, businesses or airports to cut off commerce with Iran. The result, he wrote on X, "would be the complete erosion of sovereignty as the foundational basis of the UN-based inter-State system, and a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism."
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the measures were "bound to fail." "We have seen this movie before," he wrote on X, posting a screenshot of a 2012 Obama tweet about earlier sanctions. "Same bull. Different bullies."
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told state broadcaster IRIB that "any country that takes part in imposing economic restrictions on us will be regarded as an enemy," warning of a "seismic" response. He described a three-stage approach: "Of course, we will first negotiate with them. We will hold talks and tell them to step aside and distance themselves from the United States. But if they do not act, we will strike. We will target that country's interests." He warned Iran's neighbors that if they join in, "not even a drop of oil" will leave the Gulf region.
What's Next
The immediate question is who signs on. Bessent's pitch depends on allies and third countries enforcing secondary penalties, and analysts told Al Jazeera and The Independent that China is the biggest obstacle: the analytics firm Kpler found China bought 80 percent of Iran's shipped oil in 2025, and much of Russia's and China's economies have little exposure to the American financial system.
"Trump is trying to unilaterally assert the kind of coordinated sanctions that traditionally has taken multilateral coordination, and that means getting on board China, Russia, the P5 of the UN Security Council," Paul Musgrave, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera. He said pulling it off will be "very difficult."
Gulf states are the other swing vote. Simon Mabon, a professor of international relations at Lancaster University, told Al Jazeera that those governments do not want the instability that would follow a collapse of the Iranian government: "Ultimately, Gulf countries can't change geography. They have to live and work alongside Iran."
More
The stakes for American drivers and shippers run through the Strait of Hormuz, which in peacetime carries one-fifth of global oil and gas exports and which Iran's parliament speaker says will stay shut until the US blockade ends. Iran has struck US military installations and civilian sites across the region since the war began, and energy and other facilities in Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE have been damaged — mostly by debris from intercepted strikes. The US operates military facilities in more than a dozen locations across the Middle East and North Africa.
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