Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched a global sanctions offensive targeting more than 60 individuals, entities and vessels tied to Iran, warning governments, banks and businesses that continued support for Tehran’s oil trade, financial networks and other economic lifelines could cost them access to the U.S. dollar system.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opened a new phase of the Trump administration’s campaign against Iran on Monday, presenting foreign governments and businesses with a stark choice: sever the economic channels sustaining Tehran or risk being isolated from the American financial system themselves.
The initiative, named “Operation Economic Outcast,” combines sanctions on more than 60 targets worldwide with expanded secondary sanctions covering five sectors Washington has identified as essential to Iran’s ability to withstand U.S. pressure: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping.
“Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy,” Bessent told reporters during a 1 p.m. press conference.
WATCH:
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is imposing sanctions on individuals, companies and vessels U.S. officials accuse of helping Iran sell oil, obtain technology for its nuclear and missile programs and carry out cyber operations.
Bessent said the administration is no longer willing to tolerate countries or companies operating around the margins of existing restrictions while enabling Tehran to continue earning revenue.
“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent said.
The administration is describing its strategy as a “zero leakage approach,” intended to systematically close the networks Iran has used to move petroleum, money, technology and other resources despite years of sanctions.
“We are enforcing a zero leakage approach. There will be no minimal breathing space for the regime to rebuild its capacity to inflict terror against America and the world,” Bessent said. “The final refuge of this regime is the mistaken conclusion of nations that still finance the Iranian threat in the hopes of evading it. It is no longer acceptable to operate in the gray spaces of this conflict. Countries cannot claim they are blind to enabling this activity.”
Treasury has spent time mapping the financial and commercial networks used by Iran to evade restrictions, including mechanisms for moving sanctioned oil through intermediaries and a shadow fleet of vessels.
Bessent said the government will now move against those channels methodically.
“Beginning today, the actions of Treasury and other agencies will tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue that funds the IRGC and the Iranian regime,” he said. “There will be no minimal breathing space for the regime to rebuild its capacity to inflict terror against America and the world.”
The effort is aimed not only at Iranian institutions but also at foreign governments, banks, trading companies, shipping operators and other entities Washington considers responsible for keeping Tehran connected to the international economy.
Bessent accused Iran’s foreign “enablers” of purchasing Iranian petroleum, allowing their banking systems to process Iranian funds, registering Iranian ships and aircraft and permitting sanctioned fuel transfers within their territorial waters.
“It is no longer acceptable to operate in the gray spaces of this conflict,” he said. “Countries cannot claim they are blind to enabling this activity.”
The administration is also seeking the closure of Iran-linked banking operations abroad.
“Every branch of Bank Melli must be shuttered and dark,” Bessent said, referring to Iran’s state-owned bank. “Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system. The clock just started ticking.”
Operation Economic Outcast follows Bessent’s warning Sunday in a Financial Times guest column that the United States was preparing an “economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary.”
The offensive marks a shift toward attempting to place Iran under a comprehensive economic blockade following months of military conflict and the failure of negotiations to produce a lasting agreement.
A 60-day negotiating period established under the U.S.-Iran memorandum expired without a final peace deal, after which President Donald Trump intensified warnings to countries providing Tehran with “any type of lifeline.”
Trump is now personally contacting foreign leaders to communicate U.S. demands that their governments terminate activities Washington believes are helping the Iranian government survive economically, Bessent said.
The Treasury Department, State Department and U.S. military are simultaneously sending teams to meet foreign counterparts and establish deadlines for ending transactions and activities involving Iran.
Bessent said the administration would not publicly identify the leaders or countries Trump is contacting while negotiations remain underway.
If governments decline to cooperate, he said, Washington is prepared to impose sanctions without their consent.
The administration is also offering an economic incentive to countries that align with the U.S. campaign, contrasting the possibility of deeper American economic ties with the isolation facing governments that continue facilitating Iranian trade.
“Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership,” Bessent said. “Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime.”
The sanctions are designed around what Treasury describes as five principal economic lifelines Iran has relied upon during the conflict: “digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping.”
The more than 60 targets being sanctioned globally are accused of participating in networks that allow Iran to acquire nuclear and missile-related technology, conduct cyber operations and continue earning money from petroleum sales.
Among the countries potentially exposed to the expanded secondary sanctions is China, historically one of Iran’s largest trading partners and the dominant buyer of Iranian oil.
China has for years purchased the vast majority of Iranian oil exports even while those exports were subjected to international sanctions.
According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Chinese banks and front companies help Iran with oil transactions intended to circumvent sanctions, while vessels associated with shadow-fleet operations transport sanctioned Iranian petroleum.
China has also supplied Iran with technology and inputs used in the production of attack drones and missiles.
Bessent signaled last week that Beijing would be expected to change course as Washington prepared the new economic campaign.
He urged China on Thursday to “get with the program” and support the planned U.S. economic blockade.
Bessent said Monday’s measures should not be viewed as a single sanctions package but as the opening stage of a prolonged effort intended to progressively eliminate Iran’s remaining economic options.
“This is a sustained campaign to collapse every last option for Iran,” he said. “Economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power.”
The strategy places the administration’s emphasis on countries and businesses outside Iran that still provide Tehran access to markets, banking systems, shipping, technology and other sources of revenue.
Rather than limiting enforcement to direct transactions with sanctioned Iranian entities, the expanded secondary sanctions threaten foreign participants with consequences inside the U.S. financial system.
Bessent said the objective is to eliminate the space that has allowed Iran to continue generating revenue despite existing restrictions and force governments to choose openly between continued economic dealings with Tehran and access to the United States.
For the Trump administration, Monday’s announcement represents the beginning of an attempt to transform years of sanctions on Iran into a far more comprehensive system of international economic isolation.
Original article
Comments