Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks at a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., on Monday.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled a new round of U.S. economic sanctions on Iran and what he called “its enablers” on Monday, calling it an “economic onslaught” against the country’s global financial connections.
“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” he said. The administration is calling the measures “Operation Economic Outcast.”
Here is what to know about the administration’s latest measures.
What are the new sanctions?
The Trump administration has been calling this “D-Day” for the Iranian economy. The Treasury said it has mapped out “networks, facilitators and financial channels” that enable Iran.
A statement from the Treasury Department said that among the targets of Monday’s sanctions is “a network of brokers, companies, and shadow fleet vessels operating across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Switzerland, Europe, and other regions to transport Iranian oil and channel revenue to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC‑QF) and other regime elements.”
But unlike the D-Day landing in France during World War II, the U.S. is giving countries time to change their ways before it takes major action.
“The president is making phone calls to world leaders with specific requests to cease their interactions with the regime,” Bessent said. “We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior.”
He wouldn’t spell out a timeline of when Iran’s biggest trade partners — including China — could face secondary sanctions. “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” he said.
China is Iran’s biggest oil customer. Bessent criticized the country last week for historically buying about 90% of Iran’s oil.
But he did not name China in his introductory remarks on Monday.
When a reporter asked whether Chinese banks could be targeted by the administration’s new measures, Bessent said, “We want to make clear here today that no one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.”
How much more pressure can they pile on?
The U.S. already has extensive sanctions on Iran, some stretching back almost 50 years. And as recently as June, the U.S. had imposed further penalties for entities that helped Iran evade existing financial restrictions. There has also been a monthslong U.S. naval blockade of Iran, which has cut off most goods to Iran from the outside world.
The Trump administration now appears to be focused on putting more pressure on the countries and governments — not just the businesses — that host the entities providing cash flow for Iran.
But some analysts question the actual utility of fresh economic sanctions.
Alan Eyre, a former American diplomat who was part of the U.S. negotiating team over Iran’s nuclear program until 2015, told NPR’s Emily Feng that the U.S. has already targeted “the low-hanging fruit, the mid-hanging fruit, the high-hanging fruit, the tree” and that “there are no new sanctions that are effective.”
Iran vows a “seismic” retaliation to any sanctions
Iran’s new security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, said in an interview on state TV over the weekend that Iran would retaliate in a “seismic manner” to Trump’s latest attempt at economic warfare. Rezaei, a hard-liner who used to lead Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, is now a military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei.
Rezaei warned Gulf states that any countries partnering in these new economic restrictions would be considered an enemy of — and a target for — Iran.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran nearly six months ago, Iran has attacked U.S. bases in Jordan and Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Several of the attacks have led to serious injuries and fatalities.
Rezaei said Iran would retaliate by further targeting oil tankers that are transiting the Persian Gulf, warning that “not even a single drop of oil will leave the region.”
Iran is not currently interfering in these routes, so such actions could further hamper oil supplies. Energy exports from the Gulf region have already suffered the biggest disruption in their history because of the war and Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Gulf countries that have invested billions of dollars on pipelines that can help them avoid the Strait of Hormuz have not yet commented on the U.S. plans for fresh sanctions.
New sanctions will make a dire economic situation worse for ordinary Iranians
Iran has weathered some U.S. sanctions for almost half a century, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, with ordinary Iranians bearing the brunt of the subsequent economic pain.
The Iranian economy was already struggling, with double-digit inflation and currency devaluation, when the U.S. and Israel launched this war against Iran in February. According to the Iranian government’s Statistical Center of Iran, inflation is now at almost 90%.
In anticipation of the fresh sanctions, Iran’s rial currency plunged — hitting more than 2 million rials to the dollar, according to online currency exchange trackers.
NPR spoke to one 30-year-old Iranian woman who said most ordinary Iranians are now buying food using a credit system because they do not have enough cash.
“Since I am in debt to the grocery store, I couldn’t even buy tomato paste to cook pasta,” she told NPR’s Hadeel Al-Shalchi. She did not want to be named for fear of retaliation from the Iranian government.
She said that lifesaving medicines like insulin have become too expensive for many and that daily life is becoming increasingly difficult, with frequent power cuts and unemployment rising.
Economic pain and the high cost of living were among the factors driving Iranians to protest in the streets earlier this year, in demonstrations that were met with a deadly government crackdown.
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