US says it is launching 'economic onslaught' against Iran's financial connections

Sanctions will target Iran’s "digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping".

US President Donald Trump, left, and Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary. Photographer: Yuri Gripas/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said his country is launching "an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe".

It is rolling out a series of sanctions that will target “five of Iran’s most vital lifelines that it exploits in other countries –digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping".

“As I speak, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control is also sanctioning over 60 entities, individuals, and vessels around the world that enable the Iranian regime to procure illicit nuclear and missile technology, conduct cyber operations, and generate oil revenue,” he said.

"Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone," he said.

Bessent did not say which countries are being targeted but added that under the US Operation Economic Outcast plan, the Treasury Department has "mapped every node, every facilitator and every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions."

Bessent said that every country has a "defined timeline" to shut down activities the Treasury has identified.

"Teams from Treasury, State and the US military are now meeting with their global counterparts to tell them that the United States expects action," Bessent said.

"The clock just started ticking."

Trump is making phone calls to world leaders "with specific request to cease their interactions" with Tehran, Bessent said, adding that the US was already seeing results over the weekend.

He did not elaborate on the results.

"Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime," he said.

China has for several years ​been the biggest buyer of Iranian oil and Washington has intensified its efforts to clamp down on Chinese purchases, but has ‌so ⁠far stopped short of designating larger Chinese banks that may be facilitating the oil trade.