‘Entering endgame’: Bessent announces ‘economic D-Day’ for Iran as Tehran threatens ship seizures

WASHINGTON, DC: With the US-Iran war still looming after both sides missed a 60-day ceasefire deadline, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced an “economic D-Day” against Tehran, signaling a major escalation in Washington's campaign to financially isolate the Middle Eastern nation.

The 64-year-old secretary took to X on Sunday, August 23, to state that the US was entering the “endgame” of its campaign against Iran, planning to use its economic powers to cut off the financial channels supporting the Iranian government.

This came just a few days after President Donald Trump said last week that the US would target Iran with the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.”

He also threatened severe financial penalties against any nation that helps Iran evade sanctions, adding that “this will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”

Scott Bessent declares economic ‘D-Day’ against Iran

The Treasury Secretary started his X post by boasting that President Trump “has dismantled Iran’s military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.”

“We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day, the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary,” he added.

Bessent accused Iran of using security guarantees as a form of “extortion,” saying Tehran appeared to believe its retaliation was guaranteed while US enforcement could still be negotiated. 

“The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable,” the secretary noted.

“Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington,” he added. He said Trump had created the conditions for the US government to use the full scope of its powers against Iran.

“The President has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon,” Bessent said.

“Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” he added.

Iran warns Gulf neighbors over US economic measures

Following Bessent’s threats, Iran responded by warning Gulf neighbors against backing US economic measures while tightening its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.

On Saturday, August 22, Mohsen Rezaei, a longtime military commander who became secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council earlier this month, warned that Tehran would target the interests of oil-rich Gulf neighbors if they joined US efforts to further isolate Iran.

“Any country that becomes a partner in creating economic restrictions against us will be regarded by us as an enemy,” he said in an interview with Iran’s state broadcaster.

These claims came amid reports that Iran had lost its grip on the Strait of Hormuz while traffic through the critical waterway had exploded by nearly 400% over the last two weeks.

In a series of posts on X on Sunday, Iran’s state-controlled Persian Gulf Strait Authority, or PGSA, warned that vessels violating its transit rules in the Hormuz could face penalties, including “fines, seizure, or confiscation” during future passages.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has also dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, asserting that US actions, including the blockade, were set to fail.