WASHINGTON (TNND) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to unveil a new round of economic sanctions targeting Iran on Monday, in what the administration has called an “economic D-Day.”
“We are now entering the endgame,” Bessent warned on X Sunday. “At dawn begins an economic D-DAY — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.”
Bessent said the Trump administration’s objective is to “sever every economic lifeline” sustaining Iran’s government. The measures are expected to target Iran’s remaining revenue streams, including through secondary sanctions on countries, companies and financial networks that continue to buy, transport or otherwise facilitate Iranian oil trade.
Iran’s rial fell to a record low of 2.02 million to the U.S. dollar Monday as Washington prepared to announce the new measures, The Associated Press reported. The currency has been under added pressure during nearly six months of war, with the International Monetary Fund forecasting Iran’s economy will contract by more than 5% this year.
President Donald Trump last week said any country whose financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities provide “any type of lifeline” to Iran would face “tremendous economic consequences.”
The campaign could put added pressure on Iran’s trade partners, particularly China, which has historically purchased about 90% of Iran’s oil exports, NPR reported.
Iran has denounced the planned escalation as an “economic war.” Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned Sunday that if the campaign continues, “not a single drop of oil” would be exported through the Strait of Hormuz or elsewhere in the Persian Gulf.
Rezaei added that Tehran would view any country’s participation in or support for the U.S. economic campaign as “an act of war.”