Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday announced the much-anticipated “Economic D-Day” assault on Iran, the second set of new economic sanctions to be levied against Iran since the U.S.-Israel war on Iran began. These sanctions, given the name “Operation Economic Outcast,” were announced by Bessent hyperbolically, as the most hyperbolic sanctions ever imposed by the most hyperbolic administration in the entire known history of human hyperbole: to wit, “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary.” And from the President Monday morning: “IRAN IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSING!!!"—and that was even before Bessent’s new announcement.
Those “designated” for sanctioning by the Treasury were Iranian officers of Iranian banks, exchange houses, oil export companies, shell companies in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore; and Bessent demanded, dramatically we presume, that Iran’s Bank Melli, with its branches across the Gulf, “must be shuttered and dark.” These are mostly entities which the United States has sanctioned in the past, or their successors.
According to the Treasury website, Bessent said that “any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system. The clock is ticking.
The new sectoral sanctions determinations issued today target five of Iran’s most vital lifelines that it exploits in other countries: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.”
When he was asked whether Chinese banks which finance Iranian oil imports would be targets of the financial punishments, Bessent replied that “no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions,” according to CBS’s account. Not the firmest of affirmatives. And he sharply “criticized” the United Arab Emirates from trading with Iran, but did not threaten it with sanctions, the U.A.E. having recently suspended trade with Iran due to an Iranian attack
The news service quoted a “risk analyst” with a risk analysis company. “If the United States is unwilling to meaningfully target China, can Washington reasonably justify damaging our international relations and global standing, for a strategy with only a farfetched likelihood of achieving victory?”
Bessent reportedly said that President Trump is calling world leaders to get them to break connections with Iran, but did not name them, nor say when the President was calling them, according to CBS.