US Unveils 'Operation Economic Outcast'

The Trump administration is rolling out what it's calling "Operation Economic Outcast," a sweeping push to further cut Iran off from the global economy. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday announced sanctions on more than 60 people, companies, and ships worldwide that he said help Tehran acquire nuclear and missile technology, move oil, and conduct cyber operations, the Wall Street Journal reports. He said the US would punish countries that do business with Iran. "An economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power," said Bessent, who warned on Sunday that an "economic D-Day" was on the way.

Bessent said Treasury has traced "every node" in Iran's oil-smuggling and sanctions-evasion networks and demanded that all branches of state-owned Bank Melli Iran be shut. He said President Trump is personally lobbying foreign leaders to halt trade with Tehran. "We are level-setting with every country to tell them our expectations. We know who they are. They know who they are," Bessent told reporters. "So when the hammer of US Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves." Bessent described the effort as an "economic onslaught," the BBC reports. He said Iran faces a "very clear choice" between "complete global isolation" or a "path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy."

The move comes as Washington struggles to end its conflict with Iran and secure a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and limit Iran's nuclear program. Notably absent from Bessent's prepared remarks: China, Iran's largest trading partner, though when asked whether the US would sanction Chinese banks that deal with Iran, he insisted that "no one is above the reach of US sanctions."

• Before Bessent's announcement, Iranian parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Tehran's lead negotiator, said the US was not in a position to cut off the country's trade with other countries, the AP reports. "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," he said.