US threatens toughest sanctions yet against Iran: What we know
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With diplomacy stalled over ending the war on Iran , Washington is seeking to ratchet up pressure on Tehran with “unprecedented” economic pressure.
After United States President Donald Trump threatened to punish any country doing business with Tehran last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that a new series of economic measures will “collapse” the Iranian government, calling on countries to join the effort.
On Saturday, Tehran threatened to retaliate against any country that joins the US in economic sanctions against it.
Here’s what we know about what the US is planning and how Iran could respond.
The Trump administration has already been waging an economic pressure campaign against Iran under the banner of “Operation Economic Fury”, since the launch of the war in February.
In particular, it is currently running a naval blockade on Iranian ports in a bid to prevent oil exports and has targeted companies, brokers and tankers accused of helping Iran sell its oil abroad.
It also has longer standing sweeping sanctions in place on Iran’s oil, shipping and financial sectors, seeking to cut off the revenue Tehran earns from energy exports. It has also imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump announced what he called the “most crushing economic operation” against Iran.
Trump said Iran had “failed to take” the opportunity to make a deal, and would face “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale”.
He also threatened sanctions against any country that does business with Iran.
“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” he wrote.
“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies – it all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”
On Thursday last week, one day after Trump’s social media tirade, Bessent told the news service CNBC that the US would apply the “toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.
“It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade [on Iran], and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history,” Bessent said. “It is going to work in Iran, and we are going to collapse this regime.”
He then offered a warning to the members of the international community that they, too, could face economic penalties if they continue to trade with Iran.
“We’re going to them and saying: You’re either with us or against us,” Bessent said. “If you insist on doing business with them – either transferring money, buying oil, doing seaborne ship transport – then the US Treasury and the US government, they will put its full might and force towards enforcing against you.”
He billed the US’s strategy as the “greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world”.
“It is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision,” Bessent added.
Iran has decried any new, impending US sanctions – particularly economic action against other countries – as a “complete erosion of sovereignty”.
In a post on X on Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the US announcement was “an assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty” against the United Nations’ member states.
No state can compel foreign banks, enterprises or airports to renounce commerce with Iran, he said.
“The end result would be the complete erosion of sovereignty as the foundational basis of the UN-based inter-State system, and a recipe for an abysmal return to full-scale classic colonialism,” Baghaei said.
Iranian state media pointed out that Tehran has faced US sanctions for decades. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the new measures were “bound to fail”.
“We have seen this movie before,” Araghchi wrote on X, alongside a screenshot of a tweet from former President Barack Obama referencing earlier sanctions in 2012. “Same bull. Different bullies.”
On Saturday, Tehran threatened to retaliate against any country that joins the US in economic sanctions against it.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told the IRIB state broadcaster that Iran was appealing to all countries around the world, including its neighbours, not to join the US’s “economic war”.
“Any country that takes part in imposing economic restrictions on us will be regarded as an enemy,” he said, warning of a “seismic” retaliation.
Rezaei described Iran’s strategy as a three-stage sequence starting with talks to de-escalate tensions.
“Of course, we will first negotiate with them. We will hold talks and tell them to step aside and distance themselves from the United States. But if they do not act, we will strike. We will target that country’s interests,” he said.
Rezaei also warned Iran’s neighbours that if they participate in Trump’s economic…
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