Iran’s rial plunged to a record 2.02 million per U.S. dollar Monday as the Trump administration prepared sweeping new sanctions, including penalties against countries that continue doing business with Tehran, amid nearly six months of war and a continuing U.S. naval blockade.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Iran’s currency fell to its weakest level on record Monday as the Trump administration prepared another major escalation of economic pressure intended to force Tehran to make concessions after nearly six months of war failed to break the diplomatic impasse.
The rial dropped to 2.02 million against the U.S. dollar when trading began on Iran’s informal currency markets, extending a collapse that has accelerated during the conflict with the United States and Israel.
Iran’s Central Bank maintained an official exchange rate of approximately 1.5 million rials per dollar. The informal-market rate, however, more closely reflects what ordinary Iranians typically pay for foreign currency and showed significantly greater deterioration.
The latest decline came as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent prepared to announce what Washington has described as an “economic D-Day” against Tehran, including tougher sanctions and secondary measures aimed not only at Iran but at countries continuing to provide it with commercial and financial support.
Iran entered the current conflict with an economy already confronting substantial problems. Even before the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the country was struggling with double-digit inflation and negative economic growth.
Nearly six months of warfare, existing sanctions and a U.S. naval blockade have subsequently added considerably more pressure, helping drive the rial through a series of successive record lows.
Despite Iran’s worsening financial position, President Donald Trump has so far been unable to secure the concessions Washington is seeking from Tehran.
One of the central unresolved issues remains the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically critical maritime passage connecting the Persian Gulf with international shipping routes.
Before the war, approximately one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passed freely through the strait. Iranian attacks and threats during the conflict have severely disrupted that traffic, and Tehran continues to exercise significant control over shipping through the waterway.
Iran and neighboring Oman are now reportedly nearing completion of their own arrangement for managing traffic through Hormuz.
Under the proposed system described by regional officials, vessels entering the Persian Gulf would travel through a route controlled by Iran, while outbound vessels would use a corridor under Omani control.
Oman sits directly across the strait from Iran and has traditionally maintained relations with both Tehran and Washington.
Trump has nevertheless sharply criticized the U.S. ally over its role in the dispute and has threatened to bomb Oman if it “gets in the way.”
Oman’s foreign minister was scheduled to travel to Iran on Tuesday for additional negotiations.
The diplomatic activity is unfolding alongside an increasingly aggressive U.S. attempt to isolate Tehran economically.
Bessent said new measures scheduled to be announced Monday would exceed the sanctions already imposed on Iran and would include secondary sanctions targeting countries that maintain commercial relationships with the Islamic Republic.
“President Trump decimated Iran’s economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher,” Bessent wrote Sunday in an opinion article in the Financial Times. “The regime’s final refuge now lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace.”
The administration’s strategy is designed to force governments to choose between maintaining economic ties with Iran and preserving access to the United States and its financial system.
Evidence that some regional governments are responding to that pressure emerged last week when the United Arab Emirates announced that it was suspending all trade with Iran.
Trump spoke with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan the day before that announcement.
The decision represented a potentially significant economic blow to Tehran because the UAE has historically been one of Iran’s most important trading partners.
It has also served as Iran’s largest source of imports and as a major financial and re-export center used by Iranian businesses, making the suspension consequential beyond direct bilateral trade alone.
Washington’s planned secondary sanctions could now place similar pressure on other governments, banks and companies that continue transactions with Iran.
Tehran has responded by warning that cooperation with the American campaign will not be regarded merely as an economic decision.
Mohsen Rezaei, the hard-line head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said following Bessent’s announcement that any country supporting the new U.S. economic measures would be considered to have committed an “act of war.”
The warning raises the prospect that Washington’s attempt to isolate Iran could further widen the confrontation by forcing neighboring countries and other Iranian trading partners to decide whether to comply with American demands while facing potential retaliation from Tehran.
For Iran, the immediate economic consequences are already visible in the accelerating decline of its currency.
The rial’s fall to 2.02 million per dollar marks a new low after months in which war, inflation, sanctions, shrinking economic activity and restrictions on trade have combined to erode purchasing power.
Washington is now seeking to intensify that pressure rather than ease it, betting that broader economic isolation — including consequences for third countries — can succeed where months of warfare and previous sanctions have yet to produce an agreement with Tehran.
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