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President Donald Trump declared he was launching what he called the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country after Iran failed to reach a deal with the United States according to his post on Truth Social. “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” Trump said. He listed oil smuggling swap lines cash transfers exchange houses ship registries and front companies as activities that must stop immediately adding that those involved know who they are.
The warning extends the administration’s pressure campaign known as Operation Economic Fury which launched in April to target foreign banks and firms doing business with Tehran the president indicated. It follows remarks by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent nearly a week earlier that the United States would impose economic isolation on Iran like the world has never seen before according to administration statements. The US State Department has announced multiple rounds of sanctions in recent months targeting Iran’s illicit cash flows digital asset exchanges and shipping networks.
World Bank data shows Iran’s economy is projected to shrink in both 2025 and 2026 with annual inflation rising toward 60 percent amid ongoing sanctions and reduced oil income. A Congressional Research Service assessment found that Iranian crude oil exports declined by approximately 80 percent between April 2018 and October 2019 under previous pressure campaigns stripping the government of tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. Al Jazeera reporting on the effects of those measures noted that Iran’s gross domestic product per capita suffered sharp declines coinciding with tightened US sanctions that curtailed oil exports and access to global finance.
A United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission fact sheet places China as Iran’s largest trading partner that accounts for roughly 90 percent of the country’s oil exports providing tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue that supports the government budget and military activities. The commission reported that Beijing and Tehran signed a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021 covering economic security and technological cooperation over 25 years despite multilateral sanctions. Radio Free Europe has documented how India has at times continued limited purchases of Iranian oil in past sanction periods arguing that global supply could not fully replace those volumes.
The latest threats come as the 60-day ceasefire with Iran ended on Monday with no immediate off-ramp from the conflict that the United States and Israel initiated at the end of February according to official timelines. Axios reporting on US intelligence assessments indicated that officials believe intensified sanctions could hurt Iran more than military options alone by deepening an economic crisis that includes gasoline shortages. The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on more than 1 000 people vessels and aircraft under its revived maximum-pressure campaign the Treasury Department has stated.
A White House executive order issued in February authorized additional ad valorem duties on imports from any country that purchases goods or services from Iran as a means to apply financial pressure on the regime. The order explicitly ties the measures to denying Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon while countering its regional activities the presidential document shows. No specific countries were named in Trump’s Wednesday post and the White House had not issued further details on potential enforcement mechanisms at the time of the announcement.
