U.S. Treasury levies “economic D-Day” sanctions on Iran

The Trump administration is launching an aggressive whole-of-government economic campaign against Iran and other countries financially connected to it, the Treasury Department announced Monday. Operation Economic Outcast will sever the economic lifelines sustaining Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the agency.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent characterized the sanctions as economic asphyxiation of the regime in his remarks during a Monday press conference. Any source involved in Iran’s economic web will be held accountable, he said, so every complicit country or entity should be prepared to face U.S. sanctions. Countries may choose to either reap the rewards of partnership with the United States or tether themselves to a withering regime, Bessent said.

What will the sanctions look like? The Treasury Department said it has mapped out the facilitators and channels Iran used for oil smuggling, evading sanctions, and funding terror. The United States issued sector-specific sanctions on Monday against Iran’s top five economic lifelines, which included digital currency, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping, Bessent said. Representatives from the departments of Treasury and State and the U.S. military planned to meet with global counterparts to explain what actions the United States expected them to take, he said.

U.S. officials will cut from the American financial system any entities found facilitating Iranian money laundering or sanctions evasion, the Treasury Department stated. Officials already targeted one network of over 20 entities and individuals stretched across the Middle East and East Asia believed to have aided Iran’s nuclear research and missile development. A majority of the businesses and individuals included in that network appeared to be based in China.