The Trump administration has announced Operation Economic Outcast, a new sanctions campaign intended to intensify economic pressure on Iran by targeting its oil exports, financial networks and international sanctions-evasion activities.
Announcing the initiative, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the campaign would seek to “sever every economic lifeline” sustaining the Iranian government and described it as “an unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers.” He said the United States had identified the financial networks, facilitators and trade routes used by Iran to generate revenue and would work with other government agencies to restrict those channels.
Bessent said Iran faced “a very clear choice” between “complete global isolation and a subsistence economy” or “a path back to normalcy, with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy.” He added that the Treasury would adopt a “zero-leakage approach”, arguing that there would be “no minimal breathing space” for the Iranian government to rebuild its capabilities.
The Treasury Secretary also warned governments and businesses maintaining economic links with Tehran that “the clock just started ticking.” He announced new sectoral sanctions covering digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping, alongside sanctions on more than 60 entities, individuals and vessels accused by the United States of supporting Iran’s nuclear, missile, cyber and oil sectors.
Closing his address, Bessent said teams from the US Treasury, State Department and US military were engaging counterparts worldwide and that countries had been given timelines to end activities identified by Washington or face unilateral US action. He urged governments to choose between “prosperity and isolation, peace and terror, America and Iran,” concluding that the campaign would continue to expand and “will not end until this regime stands alone.”
ℹ️ WSJ
Follow on social media TikTok@tut0ughInstagram@tut0ugh Threads@tut0ugh X@tut0ugh YouTube@tut0ugh
