{"id":994061,"date":"2026-08-11T08:50:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T08:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/994061\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T08:50:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T08:50:20","slug":"after-talks-with-iran-fizzle-trump-turns-back-to-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/994061\/","title":{"rendered":"After talks with Iran fizzle, Trump turns back to sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> likes to say that he started his war with Iran<\/a> after 50 years of economic pressure had failed to stop its nuclear weapons ambitions<\/a> \u2014 but he\u2019s now betting that another financial squeeze<\/a> can bring an end to that war.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is hoping that months of bombing have pushed Iran\u2019s economy to a breaking point that will force its leadership<\/a> to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> to oil and natural gas tankers.<\/p>\n

The president on Monday said that since Iran is seeking compensation<\/a> as part of any peace talks, he now intends to demand the same for the U.S. side. It\u2019s part of a larger pivot this weekend by Trump to argue that Iran is now on the cusp of financially collapsing, even though it has already endured decades of financial sanctions, which are often a longer-term strategy rather than an immediate tool of warfare that can halt a conflict.<\/p>\n

The shift comes as U.S. stockpiles of key weapons<\/a> have dwindled and as stop-start talks seem again to have stalled. But Trump insists the pressure can lead to a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they can make trouble, but they\u2019re broke,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cThey have no money. You know, Iran is broke, totally broke. And, they\u2019re not paying their soldiers. They have inflation of 300%.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inflation is running high in Iran, although Trump\u2019s estimates were higher than what administration officials have been citing to reporters. But the prospect of a longer war also carries inflation risks for other nations, including the U.S. \u2014 where the war and higher gasoline prices are unpopular<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crude oil prices climbed on Monday<\/a> as investors interpreted Trump\u2019s comments as a sign that fewer ships would be traversing the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, continuing to limit global supplies of gasoline, jet fuel, natural gas and other forms of energy. The Iran war largely closed the waterway involved in shipping roughly 20% of global oil supplies before the conflict \u2014 and attempts to reopen the strait have been short-lived as it has become a source of leverage for the Iranians in negotiations.<\/p>\n

Iran does not appear to be publicly intimidated by the prospect of more financial sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever Washington proves itself incapable of pursuing diplomacy, it retreats into sanctions; and whenever those sanctions fail to produce results, it simply increases the dose,\u201d said Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry, on social media. \u201cThe real risk is that American politicians, clinging to this bad habit, will instead strangle their own remaining chances of a less humiliating exit from a crisis of their own making.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House has called this \u2018Operation Economic Fury\u2019<\/p>\n

The president didn\u2019t say what additional financial pressure would be applied, but the administration has since April 16 been engaged in what it calls \u201c Operation Economic Fury<\/a> \u201d against Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called this component the \u201cfinancial equivalent\u201d of a bombing campaign as the countries that buy oil from Iran or bank with it could be sanctioned.<\/p>\n

But one problem with this pivot is that the sanctions are unable to bite as quickly as the impact of the largely shuttered strait, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University who helped direct Iran sanctions strategy in the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

Nephew stressed that the value of sanctions as a tool is limited because Trump has not articulated clear strategic goals for the war, at times stressing that it can\u2019t have a nuclear weapon, then emphasizing the strait and then talking about ballistic missiles. Instead, Trump has engaged in a massive series of aerial assaults and a level of destruction that has not produced the quick end that he initially promised.<\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic pressure is a possible element in his strategy, but he\u2019s yet to explain the purpose,\u201d Nephew said. \u201cTrump has systematically weakened his own hand through his inadequate use of force, inarticulate elucidation of an objective, and vacillation on negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the sanctions and the ongoing U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports give the U.S. economic and financial leverage, said Juan Zarate, a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration. Zarate said the U.S. sanctions threatening third-party countries doing business with Iran also have an impact. But these things take time, he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate question will be how far the United States is willing to go to constrict Iran\u2019s oil trade and threaten third countries with severe sanctions — and whether it has the patience to test whether the economic pain will change the regime\u2019s behavior,\u201d Zarate said.<\/p>\n

Past presidents used sanctions. Trump has said they didn\u2019t go far enough<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s latest pivot to economic issues with Iran is something of a flip-flop<\/a>. Trump has long derided past presidents who used sanctions to limit Iran\u2019s economic ability to pay for its military and nuclear development. In a speech last week in Las Vegas, he defended the bombing, missiles and drone attacks that began on Feb. 28 by indicating that the sanctions from previous administrations that date back to November 1979 had failed to succeed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been 47 years, but really, it\u2019s been 50 years because they\u2019ve been saying 47 for three years, it\u2019s been 50 years,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd no other president has done what you should have done a long time ago, because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, can\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iranian economy has suffered gravely because of the war, with the International Monetary Fund estimating the overall economy shrinks by 5.4% and the Iranian government recently reporting an annual inflation rate of 88.6%. The U.S. Treasury Department said average loadings of Iranian oil have decreased from 1.8 million barrels per day before the war to less than 500,000 barrels per day over the past month.<\/p>\n

The U.S. economy \u2014 the world\u2019s largest \u2014 has continued to grow, but inflation is elevated and borrowing costs have risen in ways that have hurt Trump\u2019s popularity and led to disapproval of the Iran war.<\/p>\n

A senior U.S. official, insisting on anonymity to discuss strategy, said the U.S. military has set back Iran\u2019s ability to produce, sell and ship oil and other energy resources. The administration sees the naval blockade of the strait and sanctions as effective and views Trump as having additional options that can be cranked harder in the weeks and months ahead.<\/p>\n

Trump is essentially arguing that U.S. voters are better able to tolerate any economic inconveniences than Iranians, who have been in a state of economic hardship for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just what the military can do \u2014 we\u2019ve got the most powerful economy in the world as well,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday in a joint appearance with Bessent. \u201cAnd when you\u2019ve got a motivated treasury secretary who can pull a lot of levers because he knows how to do it, you can put a lot of pressure on adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP White House reporter Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump likes to say that he started his war with Iran after 50…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":994062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[11744,396,64,69,2239,79,10102,57,3755,2055,83,3461,6087,398457,3097,50,375,53197,6986,80,16816,18244,313941,67,370,96,93,103,107],"class_list":["post-994061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-barack-obama","tag-bombings","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-indicators","tag-economy","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-george-w-bush","tag-government-and-politics","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-juan-zarate","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-sanctions-and-embargoes","tag-scott-bessent","tag-trump-hub","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-washington-news","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117076022306662594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}