USA wants to bring Tehran to its knees with new sanctions

The situation at a glance

USA wants to bring Tehran to its knees with new sanctions

The USA wants to dry up Iran’s sources of income in order to persuade the leadership in Tehran to give in. Finance Minister Bessent makes threats, but much remains unclear. Häme comes from Iran.

The USA want that Iran isolate even further economically with new sanctions and thus bring the leadership in Tehran to its knees. “Any kind of economic engagement with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full might of the United States,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned at a news conference. When asked whether this also applies China Bessent, who is considered the main buyer of Iranian oil, said only that no one should test Washington’s resolve.

The US Treasury Department has “covered every node, every intermediary and every network that Iran has used for oil smuggling and sanctions evasion,” Bessent said. Sanctions would be imposed on more than 60 organizations, individuals and vessels worldwide that allowed Tehran’s leadership to procure nuclear and missile technology, generate revenue from oil deals and conduct cyber operations.

Teams from the finance, foreign and defense ministries are in contact with their partners around the world to make it clear that the US expects immediate action, Bessent’s ministry said. Each country will be given a time frame to stop certain activities related to Iran. If they do not act, action will be taken.

Bessent did not go into detail about specific steps against individual countries. He also didn’t mention any time periods. But you don’t have unlimited patience, he said. Any institution that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be excluded from the US dollar system, he threatened. There will be a “big announcement” about the sanctioning of a financial institution later this week.

Despite Bessent’s more general threats, it remained unclear whether the new sanctions would actually achieve their goal. Extensive sanctions have already been imposed against the Islamic Republic by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union over the years.

Shortly before Bessent spoke, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf had written contemptuously on Platform X that the new US measures would fail. The Americans know that no one will fall for their grandiose statements. Iran’s trading partners have made it clear that they will not take this into account in any way.