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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday announced a sweeping new economic pressure campaign against Iran, calling it Operation Economic Outcast and promising to target the financial networks, banks and businesses helping Tehran withstand the U.S.-Iran war.
The initiative, launched at President Donald Trump’s direction, expands the use of secondary sanctions against companies and countries that continue doing business with Iran. The Treasury Department also announced new sanctions targeting sectors including digital assets, gold, aviation, technology and shipping.
Bessent described the effort as an unprecedented financial offensive designed to isolate Iran economically and pressure the regime to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route that has remained at the center of the conflict.
“Today, at President Trump’s direction, the United States Treasury has begun Operation Economic Outcast,” Bessent said Monday. He compared the campaign to the economic component of the Allied effort during World War II.
Treasury threatens Iran’s global financial connections
The administration is seeking to make continued business with Iran increasingly costly for foreign companies, financial institutions and governments.
Bessent warned that entities involved in laundering money for Iran could ultimately lose access to the U.S. dollar-based financial system.
“Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system,” Bessent said. “The clock just started ticking.”
Some of the sanctions will not take effect immediately. Bessent said the administration is giving foreign entities an opportunity to change their behavior before penalties are imposed.
“We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior,” he said, adding that the administration intends to move quickly against entities that fail to comply.
Bessent said he expects the Treasury Department to announce sanctions against a major financial institution by the end of the week, although he did not identify the institution.
He also said Trump has been contacting foreign leaders to pressure them to end financial and commercial relationships with Tehran.
China and Gulf allies face pressure
The campaign could put additional pressure on countries that maintain economic ties with Iran, including China, which plays a major role in Iranian oil exports.
Asked whether Chinese banks financing Iranian oil imports could be targeted, Bessent said no institution would be exempt.
“No one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions,” he said.
Bessent also criticized countries that continue trading with Iran, including U.S. partners in the Persian Gulf. He described such economic relationships as a form of “appeasement.”
The United Arab Emirates said last week that it had suspended financial and economic transactions with Iran, potentially limiting one of Tehran’s important commercial and financial channels.
Bessent separately called for the closure of Iran’s Bank Melli branches throughout the Gulf, saying the institution “must be shuttered and dark.”
Administration says sanctions are part of Iran war strategy
Operation Economic Outcast represents a major expansion of the Trump administration’s effort to use economic pressure alongside military operations against Tehran.
The administration has argued that the campaign is intended to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ultimately bring the war to an end.
The conflict, which the administration originally suggested could last four to six weeks, has now entered its sixth month.
Bessent previewed the campaign Sunday in an opinion piece for the Financial Times, describing it as the “single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities have been devastated by the conflict.
“IRAN IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSING!!!” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social.
But the administration’s economic strategy faces questions about whether sanctions can produce results quickly enough to influence the war.
Treasury has targeted Iranian financial networks for months
The latest operation builds on a series of sanctions the Treasury Department has imposed against Iranian financial networks since Trump returned to office.
On Aug. 7, the department sanctioned companies and individuals it accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran. Treasury said the action was the eighth major sanctions operation against Iranian networks since the beginning of Trump’s second administration.
Among those targeted were Shahr Bank and two Dubai-based exchange houses, Titan Exchange and Alps International. Treasury alleged the entities helped Shahr Bank access oil revenue generated by major Iranian exporters.
The department also sanctioned Iranian nationals and a network of shell companies operating across Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai that Treasury said helped move payments through intermediary accounts.
Separately, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned former Fly Baghdad CEO Basheer Abdulkadhim Alwan al-Shabbani, accusing him of assisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force in moving fighters, weapons and money to regional militia groups.
Iran has faced U.S. sanctions for decades, but Tehran has repeatedly developed ways to evade or circumvent financial restrictions.
What comes next
Bessent said Operation Economic Outcast will continue until Iran is economically isolated from the international system.
“This economic pressure campaign will not end until this regime stands alone,” he said.
The strategy will now face its biggest test: whether expanded sanctions can disrupt Iran’s financial lifelines, pressure countries such as China to reduce their economic ties with Tehran and contribute to reopening the Strait of Hormuz — without producing broader disruptions to the global financial system.
