THE United States is preparing what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has described as the \u201cgreatest financial offensive ever marshalled\u201d against Iran, with new sanctions targeting countries and businesses that continue to engage with Tehran\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
Bessent is due to outline the measures at a press conference on Monday, as Washington seeks to intensify economic pressure on Iran after months of conflict and stalled diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt dawn begins an economic D-Day \u2014 the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,\u201d Bessent wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The threatened measures have already drawn a sharp response from Tehran, with Iranian officials warning that continued economic pressure could trigger retaliation against the Gulf\u2019s oil trade.<\/p>\n
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, said on Sunday that Iran would halt oil exports from the Persian Gulf if the \u201ceconomic war\u201d continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported, neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf,\u201d Rezaei wrote in a social media post.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran will regard any country\u2019s participation in or support for America\u2019s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reuters reported on Monay that the escalation comes despite the absence of direct military strikes between the United States and Iran for several weeks and a lack of meaningful negotiations to end the six-month conflict.<\/p>\n
The conflict has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, since the United States and Israel launched strikes on February 28. The attacks have severely damaged Iran\u2019s conventional military capabilities and infrastructure and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
Iran, however, retains sufficient missile and drone capabilities to threaten Gulf states and shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world\u2019s most important oil transit routes.<\/p>\n
Shipping through the strategic waterway has already been brought close to a standstill, putting pressure on global fuel prices and raising fears that any further escalation could disrupt energy supplies.<\/p>\n
The precise state of Iran\u2019s nuclear programme also remains unclear, despite US and Israeli efforts to destroy its nuclear capabilities.<\/p>\n
Bessent gave few details of the sanctions package but signalled that Washington would target countries continuing to maintain economic and financial ties with Tehran.<\/p>\n
He warned \u201cfearful nations\u201d practising what he described as \u201cappeasement\u201d by supporting Iran\u2019s economy and financial system to consider the consequences of doing so.<\/p>\n
The US has also urged China to cooperate with its efforts, given Beijing\u2019s heavy reliance on Gulf oil imports.<\/p>\n
China, however, rejected the use of economic pressure as a solution. A spokesperson for its embassy in Washington said that \u201csanctions and pressure do not help resolve the problem\u201d and called for diplomacy.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s economy was already struggling under years of international sanctions before the latest conflict damaged infrastructure, disrupted trade and reduced production.<\/p>\n
Tehran is now facing additional economic pressures from reconstruction costs, supply disruptions, a weakened currency, high inflation and energy shortages, raising concerns that further sanctions could deepen hardship and fuel renewed domestic unrest.<\/p>\n
With direct US-Iran talks having last taken place in Switzerland in June, countries including Qatar, Pakistan and T\u00fcrkiye have stepped up diplomatic efforts to prevent the conflict from escalating further.<\/p>\n
Iran said Pakistan\u2019s army chief, Asim Munir, would visit Tehran on Monday as part of efforts to restore peace and security in the region.<\/p>\n
A Pakistani government source said Munir was expected to discuss recent developments, including Washington\u2019s threat of additional sanctions.<\/p>\n
The stakes extend well beyond Iran and the United States, with any disruption to oil exports from the Persian Gulf potentially affecting global energy markets, shipping costs and fuel prices.<\/p>\n
The United States reported that 18 of its military personnel had been killed and more than 750 wounded during the conflict, while US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions. – August 24, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE United States is preparing what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has described as the \u201cgreatest financial offensive ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[38,265,266,359,34,6475,37,49,213,39,2288,101,153],"class_list":["post-261824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-donald-trump","tag-geopolitics","tag-global-economy","tag-gulf","tag-iran","tag-iran-sanctions","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-oil","tag-persian-gulf","tag-scott-bessent","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117147913756466055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}