{"id":263177,"date":"2026-08-24T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/263177\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:32:10","slug":"to-further-isolate-irans-economy-u-s-rolls-out-d-day-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/263177\/","title":{"rendered":"To further isolate Iran’s economy, U.S. rolls out ‘D-Day’ sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The United States unveiled plans Monday for new sanctions against Iran that Trump administration officials said are designed to sever Tehran from the global financial system as the nearly six-month conflict <\/a>between the two countries drags on.<\/p>\n

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who previewed the announcement last week<\/a> as \u201ceconomic D-Day,\u201d described the measures as the opening of an all-out financial assault on the Iranian government and its trade partners \u2014 a group that includes China, India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo those who enable Tehran, do not discount the cost of testing Washington\u2019s resolve,\u201d Bessent said at a news conference. \u201cNo nation should expect to enjoy the rewards of our system while helping those who seek to destroy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent said it was time for world leaders to \u201cmake a decision\u201d between \u201cAmerica and Iran,\u201d adding that President Trump has already been calling foreign leaders to make specific requests ahead of the new sanctions.<\/p>\n

But when asked whom the president had been talking to, Bessent said he would not \u201cname names.\u201d He also said the secondary measure would not take effect immediately, arguing that the administration is trying to give \u201ceveryone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would I want to blow up the global financial system?\u201d Bessent said when a reporter pressed him on why the sanctions weren\u2019t immediate. \u201cWe believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pressure campaign will build on a naval blockade<\/a> and other sanctions the Trump administration has already imposed in its effort to force Tehran into a deal that ends the war on U.S. terms.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s latest economic push against Iran revives a familiar strategy from presidents of both parties, using financial leverage to pressure Tehran <\/a>toward more serious negotiations over its nuclear program. Sanctions helped bring Iran to the table before a 2015 nuclear deal brokered by President Obama, but the agreement was widely criticized as weak by Republicans. After Trump withdrew from the agreement in his first term<\/a>, a new \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign failed to secure a new deal.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s decision to return to a strategy of economic coercion has signaled to Iran that the fighting phase of the war is probably over, for now, with the U.S. administration choosing a path \u201cneither of war nor of peace,\u201d Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran\u2019s president, said this week.<\/p>\n

Iranian officials, who had been anticipating the move, pushed back on Washington\u2019s strategy even before Bessent began speaking Monday. <\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Iranian state media over the weekend that the sanctions amounted to a repackaged version of decades-old American pressure tactics that Tehran has already learned to withstand. Esmail Baghaei, Iran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman, warned of \u201cgrave consequences\u201d for any countries cooperating with what he said was \u201cillegal behavior\u201d by the United States. And Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran\u2019s Supreme Security Council, suggested that the economic pressure could shut down oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, a threat that would ripple through global energy markets.<\/p>\n

That defiance underscores the central gamble of Washington\u2019s strategy. Rather than aiming sanctions at Iran alone, Bessent\u2019s plan to potentially squeeze major economies like China and India over their ties to Tehran could pose a diplomatic risk to the U.S. <\/p>\n

The fallout could also reach beyond foreign diplomacy as a hit to global markets also risks compounding Trump\u2019s troubles at home ahead of the midterm elections, as Americans grow unhappy with the economy<\/a> and their support for the conflict in the Middle East plummets<\/a>. The Iran sanctions also land as the administration wages a separate trade fight with Canada, adding uncertainty to global and domestic markets.<\/p>\n

Whether Washington will be able to apply pressure on Iran\u2019s trade partners remains an open question. <\/p>\n

China alone shares nearly $10 billion in bilateral trade with Iran, and paid roughly $31.2 billion for unreported Iranian crude oil imports in 2025, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. That makes China the largest buyer of Iranian crude oil by a wide margin, accounting for more than 90% of Iran\u2019s oil exports, according to the commission.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Trump has spoken to China\u2019s leader, Xi Jinping, about the sanctions. But the two leaders are set to meet in Washington next month, adding to the diplomatic dynamics of the moment.<\/p>\n

Other trading partners have already made some moves. <\/p>\n

The UAE said last week that it was suspending trade with Iran,<\/a> a decision that followed accusations that Tehran had fired two ballistic missiles at the Emirates.<\/p>\n

Afra Al Hameli, a spokesperson for the Emirati Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a post on Aug. 18 on X that all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice. She added that the Emirates was \u201cfirmly committed to safeguarding the integrity of the international financial system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent said Monday that he expects other countries will \u201ctake similar actions as we continue our engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an opinion article written for the Financial Times last week, Bessent has cast the new measures as the \u201csingle greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bessent wrote that countries that \u201csever Iran\u2019s remaining financial and commercial connectivity\u201d will see their economies reinvigorated, and those who don\u2019t will experience the end of their \u201clasting prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAny nation that serves as a financial artery of a withering regime should expect to share in its isolation,\u201d he wrote. \u201cTo become a sanctuary for terror is to become, in the eyes of the United States, a global pariah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the announcement Monday, Trump posted on Truth Social that Iran was \u201ccompletely collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s central bank governor, Abdolnaser Hemmati, said the U.S. had already done all that it can against Iran and that the central bank had been shoring up its foreign currency reserves for months. Last week, he said Iran\u2019s crude exports had \u201cvirtually stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Americans] have done everything, so what else can they do?\u201d he said in an interview with Tasnim News.<\/p>\n

Despite his assurances that the central bank was working on preventing a devaluation of the Iranian rial, the currency has struggled to remain above a black market exchange rate of 2 million per dollar \u2014 a record low. The Central Bank rate stands at roughly 1.5 million rial to the dollar.<\/p>\n

Though experts question the effectiveness of additional economic pressure on Tehran, Bessent\u2019s threat to target Iran\u2019s trading partners \u2014 especially the UAE, China and Turkey, who together comprise almost three-quarters of Iran\u2019s foreign imports \u2014 will undoubtedly be painful for Iranians.<\/p>\n

For example, Iran uses the UAE as a reexport hub and buffer, and receives vehicle spare parts from China, according to the Observatory for Economic Complexity. Iranian economic experts say both the agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors also rely on imports from countries such as Brazil and Turkey.<\/p>\n

Ceballos reported from Washington and Bulos from Beirut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The United States unveiled plans Monday for new sanctions against Iran that Trump administration officials said are designed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[72442,4760,22240,72441,262,1555,147,72440,34,722,14067,69,71910,709,1705],"class_list":["post-263177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-announcement-last-week","tag-bessent","tag-bilateral-trade","tag-central-bank-governor","tag-china","tag-country","tag-economy","tag-familiar-strategy","tag-iran","tag-president-trump","tag-sanction","tag-tehran","tag-u-s-term","tag-uae","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117152628200036141","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263177","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=263177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}