The Trump administration said it is launching what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called an "economic D-Day" against Iran on Monday, escalating Washington's campaign to cut Tehran off from international commerce while Iranian officials threatened countries that participate in the restrictions and warned vessels in the Strait of Hormuz of possible seizure or confiscation.
Bessent described the initiative as the "greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary," signaling that President Donald Trump intends to use economic isolation rather than immediately return to large-scale military operations against Iran. The strategy broadens the confrontation beyond Washington and Tehran by putting governments and businesses dealing with Iran under increasing pressure to choose sides.
"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," Bessent said in a social-media post Sunday.
Bessent said Trump "has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone."
The Treasury secretary's remarks build on statements from Trump and other administration officials that Washington would intensify economic pressure on Tehran instead of resuming active military conflict. The administration is portraying the campaign as the next stage of its confrontation with Iran following U.S. military operations against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure.
Iran, meanwhile, is warning that governments helping Washington isolate its economy could themselves become targets of retaliation. Mohsen Rezaei, the new secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and a longtime senior military figure, said Monday that any country "that becomes a partner in creating economic restrictions against us will be regarded by us as an enemy."
That warning raises the stakes for regional governments whose financial institutions, ports, airports or companies could face U.S. pressure to restrict dealings with Tehran. It also creates another potential source of instability around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most strategically important energy corridors.
Iran's state-controlled Persian Gulf Strait Authority separately warned that vessels violating its transit rules through Hormuz could eventually face "fines, seizure, or confiscation." The warning suggests Tehran could increasingly use shipping regulations and control over nearby waters as leverage as Washington tightens its economic campaign.
Inside Iran, senior officials have publicly acknowledged that military strength alone won't protect the country from sustained economic pressure. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made that point during a meeting with Iranian and Iraqi business leaders at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad last week.
"No matter how much military power we have, if people are hungry and we don't have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure," Qalibaf said.
Qalibaf linked economic resilience directly to Iran's broader national-security position. "If we establish security but do not sustain it through the economy, it will not last," he said, while accusing the U.S. and Israel of conducting what he called "cognitive" warfare against Iran.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has also publicly argued for bringing the conflict to an end while Tehran believes it retains negotiating leverage. "It is better to end the war today, when we are powerful and respected and the whole world acknowledges our victory," Pezeshkian said.
