U.S. President Donald Trump threatened any country helping Iran in any way with \u201ctremendous economic consequences,\u201d as the American Administration is ratcheting up economic pressure on Iran in the hope of ending the war it began in February.<\/p>\n
Late on Wednesday, President Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social \u2013 as usual \u2013 to announce massive economic pressure on Iran and simultaneously threaten dire economic consequences on any country providing a \u201clifeline\u201d to Iran in any way.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me. TRAGICALLY, for them, they have failed to take it. Therefore, today, I am announcing the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!,\u201d President Trump wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n The crushing economic operation would be \u201con an unprecedented scale\u201d to isolate Iran economically, according to the U.S. President.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, I am also announcing that 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,\u201d President Trump said.<\/p>\n \u201cOil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies \u2014 It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. President did not explicitly name any country in his post.<\/p>\n In the oil market, Iran\u2019s key customer is none other than China, which has been buying more than 90% of all sanctioned Iranian oil in recent years.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, analysts expected that China\u2019s independent refiners are likely to return to buying higher<\/a> volumes of Iran\u2019s crude oil in August as stockpiles in Shandong, home to the independent Chinese refiners, have dropped to the lowest level this year after the biggest estimated monthly draw in a decade.<\/p>\n By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com<\/p>\n