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⚡️ Trump’s ‘Economic D-Day on Iran’ to start Monday
➡️ US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke to reporters on Thursday, explaining that the economic sanctions due to be applied to Iran, as per President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post the night before, were designed to be crushing to Iran, and said that the enforcement of the economic sanctions would begin from Monday August 24.
🔹 President Trump said on Truth Social that no one had given Iran a greater opportunity to make a deal than him, and they had tragically failed to take it, announcing the most ‘crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.’
🔹 “This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” Trump claimed, again repeating previous claims that the Iranian navy was gone, the air force was destroyed, the military factories were now rubble, the currency in the country was worthless, and Iran was ‘hanging by a thread.’
🔹 President Trump said: “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 will itself face tremendous economic consequences,” adding: “Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies – it all needs to stop now – you know who you are!”
🔹 Trump said that this will be an economic ‘D-Day,’ and ‘we need all our allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat,’ stating: “These maniacs are on the ropes, and these historic measures will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide – Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
🔹 It was clear from the President’s ending comments that the ‘Economic D-Day; plan had not been previously agreed with allies, or that allies had been spoken to about the upcoming operation for the sanctions, with Israeli’s Walla saying on Friday that President Trump is looking to delay any military action with Iran until after the United States midterm elections.
🔹 Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made it clear that the allies hadn’t been informed, when asked by CNBC whether the economic campaign would include China, because China is the primary economic partner of Iran, to which he replied: “Many conversations are best to have in private.”
🔹 Bessent said: “We are going to have the toughest sanctions in history and I tell you this will work – it worked in Venezuela once we put up the blockade, it is working in Cuba right now, and it is going to work with Iran – we are going to collapse this regime.”
🔹 Vice President JD Vance told the Clay & Buck Radio Show that the main goal of the operation is to get enough oil and gas out to ‘give some Americans some ease at the pump, some ease on energy prices, meanwhile, the Iranians are punished for shooting at commercial ships.’
🔹 The VP said: “That just applies a lot of economic pressure to them and that changes their calculus for, you know, what kind of deal they want to make, what kind of arrangement they want to have with the United States of America.”
🔹 Vance continued: “Do they want to have their country strangled for the rest of time or do they want to have a better relationship with the West?” adding: “That’s always been the option the President has put to these guys.”
🔹 According to Vance, we’re kind of in a new phase where the most effective tool is economic pressure that can be applied to Iran: “And this is a delicate dance because we apply economic pressure to them, and they’re going to try to apply economic pressure to us, but what has been true over the last couple of weeks is they felt a lot more pressure than we have – we’re going to keep going because we think that’s the best way.”
🔹 Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, criticised President Trump’s announcement, arguing that Washington’s claims of Iran being on the verge of collapse contradicted its efforts to seek support from allies.
🔹 Gharibabadi said the wrong calculations behind US policy had repeatedly forced Washington to create what he described as an even larger failure to cover up the previous setbacks.
🔹 The minister argued that the military campaign had failed its objectives and that the next setback was now being labelled as an ‘economic war.’
🔹 Iran’s Foreign Ministry also published a statement which explicitly classified US economic sanctions against individual citizens of Iran as ‘economic terrorism’ and ‘crimes against humanity,’ asserting that the perpetrators, commanders, and executors of the measures are subject to legal prosecution and punishment due to the ‘heinous acts.’
🔹 The statement dismissed the sanctions as a failed continuation of ‘past US-Zionist’ military and economic pressures that were designed to force Iran into submission, emphasising that the measures will not have the slightest impact on the Iranian people’s determination to safeguard their independence, dignity, and national sovereignty.
🔹 Economic pressure was characterised as another facet of war, military aggression, and US belligerence that threatened not only global peace and security, but also human civilisation and moral decay, arguing that any government committed to the UN Charter cannot remain indifferent to continuous US law-breaking and blatant international norm violations.
🔹 The MFA declared that Iran stood firm and resolute in defending its national interests and security against all military, economic, political, and psychological pressures, leveraging seven decades of resistance experience and national capabilities, and Iran pledged to use all tools and capacities to repel the ‘malice of the US-Zionist enemy.’
🔹 Kpler and Reuters both reported that the number of ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz is still in single figures, despite President Trump and other officials claims of up to 20 vessels per day transiting the Strait.
🔹 Only seven ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, of which four entered and three exited, the report stated, adding that some had used the Iranian route, including a large gas carrier, while there were no VLCC tankers to be seen.
🔹 Traffic in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has also slowed, with only 23 ships crossing on Thursday, compared to 34 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
