On Thursday, the United States pushed its allies and China to join a broad economic pressure campaign against Iran, meant to ‘bring down the Tehran regime’ without resuming military operations.
On Thursday, the United States pressed its allies and China to join a major economic pressure campaign against Iran, aimed at “bringing down the regime” in Tehran without restarting military operations.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry responded by accusing Washington of “economic terrorism,” according to the Iranian agency Irna.
“Any country that keeps a link with Tehran would be pushing its own economy into oblivion, whether that link is maintained voluntarily or deliberately ignored,” threatened U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on X.
Without giving any details on the measures being considered, he had already warned shortly before that countries that didn’t support this campaign would be considered “against us,” in an interview with CNBC.He will give a press conference on Monday about how the United States plans to further increase pressure.
Washington, which already imposes a naval blockade and numerous sanctions on Iran, announced on Thursday new measures against a Hezbollah financing network in Lebanon, highlighting its close ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
“In step”
On CNBC, the Treasury Secretary urged China to “get in step.”
“We will bring down this regime” in Iran, he also said, echoing a goal that Washington had put forward at the start of the conflict, after the strikes carried out jointly with Israel on February 28, but had stopped mentioning afterward.”If we apply maximum economic pressure, that means it is likely that there won’t be a resumption of large-scale military operations, but I want to emphasize that this is for now,” he told CNBC.
Faced with dwindling military options, a diplomatic stalemate, and public opinion against the conflict, Donald Trump had already promised Tuesday evening “the most crushing economic operation ever undertaken” against Iran.
Illustrating the pressure nearly six months of conflict has put on the resources of the world’s top military power, the U.S. military announced on Thursday the arrival of a new aircraft carrier in the Middle East, replacing the Abraham Lincoln, whose extended deployment at sea had raised concerns about crew conditions.
The main unknown, in this new U.S. economic strategy, is probably Beijing.More than a quarter of Iran’s trade in 2024 was conducted with China, a major oil consumer to which Tehran continues to export despite sanctions, using a ‘ghost’ fleet.
Balance of power
Washington’s ability to either rally or fail to rally China to its ‘economic war’ will say a lot about the real power balance between the two superpowers.
Donald Trump is convinced he has a special relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom he will receive on September 24 in the United States.
Among Iran’s major trading partners are also the United Arab Emirates, which announced on Tuesday that it would suspend ‘all trade and financial transactions’ with the country until further notice.Turkey, as well as Russia, also have significant economic exchanges with Iran. In Moscow’s case, the transactions also involve military equipment.
It remains to be seen how the U.S.’s allied countries, which have stayed out of the military operations, will position themselves, something that has earned them lasting resentment from the American president.
Iran’s economy, weakened by decades of international sanctions, is being seriously tested by the war.
The United States is also feeling the backlash of the conflict, with stubborn inflation and soaring borrowing costs for the U.S. Treasury, which has been forced to step in on the debt market.
