The Trump administration has launched what it calls Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign to cut Iran off from the global economy by threatening sanctions on foreign governments, banks and companies that keep doing business with Tehran. The head of Iran's supreme national security council calls the move an act of war and has raised the prospect of blocking Gulf oil routes, while China has ordered its firms not to comply with the US sanctions, complicating Washington's push for compliance.
The Trump administration's new economic offensive against Iran is meant to finish what months of war could not: force Tehran's capitulation. Instead, Iranian officials are signaling they intend to endure it and push back.
Washington tightens the squeeze
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has named the effort Operation Economic Outcast, an attempt to cut Iran off from what remains of the global economy and threaten foreign governments, banks and companies with sanctions if they keep doing business with Tehran. Iranian officials acknowledge that oil exports and access to foreign currency have been severely constrained, and ordinary Iranians face high inflation, currency depreciation and worsening living standards.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran should seek peace while it can still negotiate from a position of power and dignity. But according to columnist Sina Toossi, Iran needing a deal is not the same as Iran preparing to surrender.
Tehran threatens to raise the cost
Mohsen Rezaei, the new head of Iran's supreme national security council, has called participation in Washington's economic campaign an act of war. He says Tehran will first try to persuade neighboring states not to join the sanctions but has threatened their interests if they do, and has even warned that Iran could block Gulf oil exports through routes designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
That threat matters because Washington needs much of the world, especially China, the principal buyer of Iranian oil, to enforce the sanctions. Yet Beijing is moving the other way: it has ordered firms not to comply with US sanctions targeting Chinese buyers of Iranian oil, and its top court recently highlighted a ruling penalizing a Singaporean company for complying with US sanctions. China has warned it will take all necessary measures if Chinese interests are targeted.
An admission from the Treasury
Bessent himself has acknowledged the danger of imposing the most sweeping secondary sanctions immediately. Asked why Washington was not doing so, he said: "Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?" according to the same report.
With midterm elections approaching, the White House has an incentive to avoid an escalation that could disrupt Gulf energy flows and send fuel prices higher, a dynamic Tehran is counting on as it bets its own endurance will outlast Washington's tolerance for the war's economic costs.
Source: The Guardian
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