US expands Iran sanctions and threatens retaliation against its trading partners

The US has announced a new round of sanctions aimed at Iran and warned every country that does business with Tehran will face retaliation from Washington if it does not sever those financial ties. The announcement was made by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said the sanctions would further strangle Iran's ability to trade with the rest of the world. Donald Trump pledged last week to unleash an “economic D-Day” against Tehran as the administration struggles to find an off-ramp after nearly six months of war in the Middle East. “We are level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations. We know who they are. They know who they are,” Bessent told a news conference on Monday. “So when the hammer of US Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves.” Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz. Credit: AP Washington has promised the new sanctions will put even more pressure on an Iranian economy already battered by previous sanctions and a US naval blockade. But the announcement Monday provided little detail, and did not name which countries could face secondary sanctions. China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are Iran’s largest trade partners. Bessent said Trump has been “making phone calls to world leaders with specific requests to cease their interactions” with Iran, and claimed he had already seen results. The UAE announced last week it was suspending all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice. The US president previously threatened economic D-day against Iran. Credit: AP “I am confident the president, as you all know, is quite persuasive,” Bessent said, adding that the UAE decision was “not a coincidence". Shortly before Monday's announcement, Iranian parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said the US was not in an economic position to further restrict Tehran's relations with other countries. “Iran’s trading partners, both in the media and through messages sent to us, have made it clear that they don’t take these statements into account anywhere,” Qalibaf, who has been Iran's lead negotiator over the past six months, posted on X. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, also issued a warning, telling Iran's state broadcaster: “If (Trump) wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner" before the sanctions were announced. Hours before Bessent's announcement, Iran’s currency hit a record low. Iran says Strait of Hormuz will not open until US 'corrects its behaviour' Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of ending Iran war The rial dropped to 2.02 million to the US dollar as trading opened on currency markets. Iran’s official Central Bank rate stood at around 1.5 million rial to the dollar, but the market rate is what most Iranians pay. The currency had already been under pressure before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, as Iran faced double-digit inflation and negative growth. The rial has repeatedly hit new lows as nearly six months of war have taken an even greater toll. Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning. Iranians find daily staples increasingly unaffordable. Since the war began, rice is up some 60%, and beef prices are more than 150% higher. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that gross domestic product will contract more than 5%, but the economic pressure has still not translated into political or military success for the US. Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz, which has brought traffic in the vital waterway to a near halt, damaging the world economy and heaping pressure on the US president ahead of the midterm elections. A fifth of the world’s traded oil transited through the strait before the conflict. Iran is now refusing to fully reopen it unless it can charge ships. Iran and Oman, which is on the opposite side of the strait, are reportedly in the final stages of agreeing on a plan for joint management of the waterway. Oman’s foreign minister is set to visit Iran on Tuesday. Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know…