US Threatens Economic D-Day Over Tehran as Iran Vows Oil Blockade

A total economic offensive targeting Iran's financial lifelines and foreign business partners is set to begin at dawn, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced ahead of a scheduled Monday news conference in Washington.

The impending sanctions campaign seeks to isolate Tehran by cracking down on third-party nations and financial institutions that facilitate illicit Iranian petroleum shipments, particularly targeting buyers like China.

American officials framed the economic assault as a necessary step to force Tehran back into diplomatic negotiations following months of military escalation.

"At dawn begins an economic D-Day -- the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary," wrote US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in an opinion piece.

Addressing foreign governments that continue trading with the Islamic Republic, Bessent warned against facilitating Iranian maritime fuel transfers and banking activities.

"The world should understand that our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone," said Bessent.

He noted that countries maintaining trade relations with Iran are operating under a false sense of security.

"Iran's enablers purchase and transport its petroleum...They turn a blind eye to seaborne fuel transfers and the illicit use of their banks, all while concealing the extent of their complicity... In short, these countries calculate appeasement of the regime to be the safer course. But they would do well to consider the consequences of sustaining it," Bessent wrote.

Bessent emphasized that military responses from Tehran against US allies or economic measures would draw an immediate counterstrike.

"has dismantled Iran's military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 per cent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program. We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day -- the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary," claimed Bessent on social platform X.

He argued that the shift in American policy marks an end to Tehran's strategic leverage in the region.

"The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable. Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington," he added.

Iranian leadership responded swiftly, declaring that compliance with American economic measures would be treated as an overt military threat.

"Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law," said Esmaeil Baghaei, Foreign Ministry spokesperson for Iran.

Tehran raised the stakes further by threatening to choke off global energy supplies originating from the Persian Gulf if US enforcement cuts off Iranian energy sales.

"If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported, neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf. Iran will regard any country's participation in or support for America's economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war," said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Despite the military readiness, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed interest in a diplomatic settlement as oil transit through the narrow strait ground to a near-total halt.

"It would be better to end the war today, when we are powerful and have dignity, and the whole world acknowledges our victory and emphasises that America, contrary to all regulations, attacked our schools, hospitals, and infrastructure and is hated in the world," said Masoud Pezeshkian, President of Iran.

Key negotiators within Iran acknowledged the critical pressure economic enforcement places on domestic stability.

"No matter how much military power we have, we won't survive if people are hungry and we don't have financial turnover, economic growth and national production," said Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament.