Iran's allies come under US crosshairs as Scott Bessent unleashes 'economic D-Day'

WASHINGTON, DC: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday, August 24, announced that the US is planning new sanctions for nations tied to Iran.

A day earlier, on Sunday, Bessent announced an “economic D-Day” against Tehran, signaling a major escalation in Washington's campaign to financially isolate the Middle Eastern nation.

Iran’s global lifeline comes under fire as US plans sanctions

The Treasury Department threatened damaging new sanctions on countries that refuse to cut economic ties with Iran. Bessent coined the effort 'Operation Economic Outcast'.

However, it has not actually imposed those major sanctions yet.

“We find that the best way to engage with countries is through quiet diplomacy, and we are level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

The US on Monday said that it has expanded the categories of “Iran-related conduct” that the US might sanction in the future as it ramps up efforts to exert pressure on Tehran.

The US is apparently giving nations specific, defined timelines to end their relationships with the regime.

Although Bessent has vowed an “economic D-Day” for Iran, the federal government has yet to impose the biggest sanctions that it has threatened.

Instead, the administration said it will work with “counterparts around the world” to shut down their activity tied to Iran.

The new sanctions include penalties that cover sectors like digital assets, technology, and shipping that the Treasury Department determined Iran has relied on to prop up its economy.

Scott Bessent dodges question on Chinese bank sanctions

During the press conference on Monday, Scott Bessent refused to answer whether the Trump administration is willing to sanction Chinese banks.

When pressed on whether that would include Tehran’s main trading partner, China, he said only that “no one is above the reach of US sanctions.”

“If they facilitate transactions and are part of the ecosystem that turns Iranian oil into money, into repression, they will be targeted,” Bessent said. “We know who they are. They know who they are.”

China has long purchased as much as 90% of Iran’s oil exports, in addition to maintaining a broader trade relationship.

“We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day, the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary,” Scott Bessent wrote in an X post on Sunday, August 23.