Full story
Economic D-Day Threat
U.S. President Donald Trump announced new economic sanctions against Iran on Wednesday, calling them an "ECONOMIC D-DAY" and warning that any country allowing its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide a "lifeline to Iran" would face "TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences."
“Today, I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran”
In a separate post, Trump said "Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW," while describing Iran as "maníacos" that were "contra las cuerdas" and asserting "IRÁN NUNCA TENDRÁ UN ARMA NUCLEAR."
Iran dismissed the threat as a diversion, with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi saying, "The so-called 'Economic D-Day' is a diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs."
Araghchi added that "US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide," as the U.S. did not provide immediate detail on the nature of the expected sanctions.
Isolation, Blockade, Pushback
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Iran it could face what he called the "greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world," saying the United States was preparing additional economic measures aimed at cutting Iran off financially.
Bessent’s warning came as the Trump administration increased pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program, regional aggression and threats to global shipping, while Iranian officials rejected the pressure and accused Washington of using economic threats as a political weapon.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the imminent U.S. announcement of new economic sanctions was an "assertion of extraterritorial sovereignty over every independent member state of the United Nations," adding that "Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law."
As the Strait of Hormuz remained bottled up, the AAPNews report said only four commodity ships sailed along the strait on Thursday, and it quoted U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the U.S. military helped move "a seven-day average of eight million barrels a day of oil" through the strait.
Pressure Stakes and Next Steps
The dispute over economic pressure is unfolding alongside stalled diplomacy, with ABC News reporting that a 60-day memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran to lay the groundwork for an end to the war had expired and there was no other agreement to replace it.
“there were "no talks or conversations going on" with Iran”
ABC News also said Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday that there were "no talks or conversations going on" with Iran, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax the administration would apply measures "like have never been seen in the history of economic isolation on a country."
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf, described by ABC News as the lead negotiator with the U.S., wrote on X that Bessent was "way out of [his] league" and said the U.S. was "trying to pull a rabbit out of their hat."
In the background of the sanctions push, ABC News said energy secretary Chris Wright told Fox News the president was "not in a hurry" to bring about a solution, and it quoted Karen Young saying new moves could include "squeez[ing] third parties and the interlocutors for money that gets to Iran," including China and shipping companies.