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(AP)<\/p>\n
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference Monday to spell out the shape and scope of President Donald Trump’s promised “economic D-Day” against Iran, with the administration preparing its toughest-ever sanctions and signaling that the campaign will reach beyond Tehran to foreign countries and companies that continue doing business with Iran.<\/p>\n
The press conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET at the Treasury Department, according to a Treasury statement.<\/p>\n
Bessent said this week that he would provide details Monday of the planned measures, which are expected to expand the administration’s economic campaign from sanctions on Iranian entities to secondary sanctions and other pressure on foreign governments, companies and financial networks that help Iran maintain access to the global economy.<\/p>\n
The administration has already signaled several of the targets.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that any country whose financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities provide “any type of lifeline to Iran” would face “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”<\/p>\n
Trump specifically cited oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies, saying they “all need to stop NOW.”<\/p>\n
Bessent has described the campaign as an effort to create the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world,” telling CBS News that Washington is effectively asking allies and rivals to decide whether they will join the effort.<\/p>\n
He has also described the sanctions and the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports as a “one-two punch,” saying the administration intends to impose the “toughest sanctions in history.”<\/p>\n
The emphasis is expected to fall heavily on Iran’s oil revenue, which remains the country’s principal source of foreign currency.<\/p>\n
Reuters reported Friday that Iranian oil offers to Chinese buyers have fallen sharply as the U.S. blockade restricts Iranian exports, with Iran’s shipments to China already significantly below their 2025 average. China takes more than 80% of Iran’s seaborne oil exports, making Chinese buyers a critical pressure point for Washington.<\/p>\n
That makes China one of the biggest tests of the new campaign.<\/p>\n
Bessent has urged Beijing to “get with the program,” but has not publicly said that China will be specifically targeted by Monday’s measures.<\/p>\n
The administration is also expected to focus on the financial channels that allow Iran to move oil proceeds and conduct international trade.<\/p>\n
Treasury has already targeted Iranian banks, exchange houses and companies in other countries that Washington says help move Iranian oil revenue and circumvent sanctions. In an Aug. 7 sanctions action, Treasury targeted Shahr Bank and two Dubai-based exchange houses, saying they helped Iranian oil exporters retrieve hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue. Bessent said at the time that Treasury would continue cutting such networks off from the U.S. financial system.<\/p>\n
The Monday announcement could therefore broaden an existing sanctions strategy rather than create an entirely new one, with the major escalation coming from the administration’s willingness to punish foreign participants in Iran’s trade and financial networks.<\/p>\n
The New York Times reported Friday that Washington was preparing measures aimed at countries that buy Iranian oil, with China potentially facing some of the greatest pressure because of its importance as a customer for Iranian crude.<\/p>\n
Bessent has said the ultimate objective is to put enough economic pressure on Tehran to collapse the Iranian government.<\/p>\n
He has also argued that maximum economic pressure could reduce the need for a return to large-scale military action.<\/p>\n
“If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” Bessent told CNBC, according to CBS News.<\/p>\n
Iran, however, is promising to fight back.<\/p>\n
Iran’s Armed Forces chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, said Friday that Tehran’s response to new U.S. pressure would be “crushing, punishing and devastating,” according to Reuters, which reported that he said Iranian forces were prepared to respond across land, sea, air, air defense and cyberspace.<\/p>\n
Iranian officials have also moved to strengthen the country’s economic defenses.<\/p>\n
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Friday that Iran must develop plans to overcome what he called “unjust” U.S. sanctions and reduce its dependence on the dollar, while urging closer economic cooperation with regional partners. Reuters reported that Ghalibaf described the American campaign as economic and psychological warfare.<\/p>\n
Iran has also been working to deepen regional trade ties.<\/p>\n
CBS News reported Friday that Tehran had finalized a preferential trade agreement with Oman as part of an effort to strengthen commercial relationships in the region after Trump threatened the economic campaign.<\/p>\n
China, meanwhile, has rejected the administration’s pressure campaign.<\/p>\n
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said Friday that sanctions and pressure would not resolve the conflict and called for a diplomatic solution.<\/p>\n
The economic confrontation comes as the United States continues its blockade of Iranian ports and seeks to restrict Tehran’s ability to export oil.<\/p>\n
The administration has portrayed the combined campaign as a way to force Iran to change course without returning to a major military escalation, while maintaining Trump’s demand that Iran never obtain a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n
The stakes for global energy markets are also rising.<\/p>\n
Reuters reported Friday that Iranian oil supplies to Chinese buyers have tightened sharply, while Iranian crude that remains available is increasingly being sold at premiums rather than the steep discounts that had characterized much of the trade.<\/p>\n
Bessent’s Monday appearance is expected to provide the clearest picture yet of how Washington intends to execute Trump’s “economic D-Day” \u2014 including how aggressively Treasury will pursue Iran’s oil revenues, financial channels and shipping networks, and whether foreign governments and companies that continue doing business with Tehran will themselves become targets.<\/p>\n
For Iran, the question is how far Tehran will go in responding to an economic campaign that its leaders say threatens the country’s remaining commercial lifelines.<\/p>\n
For Washington, Monday will mark the transition from Trump’s broad threat of an unprecedented economic assault to the specific measures the administration intends to use to carry it out.<\/p>\n
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