US Treasury Secretary Declares Economic D-Day for Iran
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday stated that the Trump administration is approaching the “endgame” in its efforts against Iran, declaring what he referred to as a “economic D-Day” intended to cut off Iran’s economic lifelines. In a recent post on X, Bessent asserted, “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 said. Bessent accused Iran of employing security guarantees as a form of “extortion” and noted that Tehran had depended on the assumption that Iranian retaliation was inevitable while US enforcement could be subject to negotiation. “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,” Bessent said. “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.
Bessent stated that Trump had established the circumstances for the US government to utilise its complete array of authorities in relation to Iran. “The President has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon,” he said. “Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone,” Bessent added. Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei on Monday cautioned that Tehran might suspend all oil exports via the Strait of Hormuz and other routes in the Persian Gulf should the United States persist in its “economic war” against Iran. Rezaei, in a post on X, cautioned that Iran would regard any nation that supports or engages in the US economic campaign against Tehran as committing a “act of war.” And “If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported. neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf. Iran will regard any country’s participation in or support for America’s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war,” Rezaei said.
The warning arises in the context of escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington concerning US intentions to implement stricter economic sanctions against Iran. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the United States in response to President Donald Trump’s recent threat of new economic sanctions, employing satirical commentary to suggest that stringent economic measures tend to have counterproductive effects. In a recent post on X, Ghalibaf remarked on the inadequacies of addressing profound financial distress through temporary governmental measures and offered a sardonic perspective on the dynamics of economic pressures. “Importing frozen meat to fix meat prices. Okay, that might work. What’s the plan for bonds, import frozen yields? Frozen homebuyers for housing? Frozen paychecks for wages? A frozen foreign policy delivers a frozen economy. The only thing still moving? The Iran boomerang,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to source, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei criticised the threat of US sanctions, asserting that war and sanctions are “not unfamiliar” to Iran. He observed that the Islamic Republic has faced sanctions for two decades. Iran’s response followed Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of what he termed a “Economic D-Day” campaign against the nation, characterising it as the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.” Trump stated that the campaign would constitute “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale” and urged US allies to collaborate with Washington in isolating Iran. Trump also stated that Washington had “very draconian sanctions” available against Iran and suggested that further measures could be forthcoming. “We have things that we could sanction. We have very draconian sanctions, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said while addressing technology leaders.
He stated that Washington would assess its forthcoming strategy in light of developments, noting that the situation could either culminate in a substantial decline in oil prices or perpetuate the current measures. On Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a stern warning to Iran regarding the “toughest sanctions in history,” asserting that Washington will implement a strategy of coordinated economic isolation against Tehran with the objective to “collapse this regime,” as reported. He urged US allies to join Washington in isolating Tehran, asserting that the measures would diminish Iran’s capacity to exert influence on a global scale. Bessent added that a media conference on Monday, August 24, would reveal “exactly what we’re going to do” against Iran.
