In a significant escalation of its economic campaign against Iran, the U.S. government is poised to impose sanctions on another bank this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Sunday. Speaking to The Associated Press, Bessent described the intensified efforts as "financial violence if we have to," emphasizing, "We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop."
Secretary Bessent's remarks come ahead of crucial Group of 20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina, where he plans to engage individually with his global counterparts to rally support for isolating Iran economically. This move solidifies the Trump administration's recent pivot from military strikes to sustained economic pressure, framing it as an "economic D-Day" against a nation already grappling with decades of sanctions.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addresses the media, outlining further sanctions against Iran, at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., Aug. 24, 2026.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Despite this focus on economic measures, tensions between the U.S. and Iran flared on Sunday with U.S. forces striking Iranian rocket launchers on the Strait of Hormuz—the first military action in a month—to which Iran vowed swift retaliation.
A key challenge for the administration remains its approach to China, Iran's largest trading partner and primary buyer of its oil. Bessent confirmed he would discuss this with his Chinese counterparts at the G20, stating that "all options are on the table" regarding potential sanctions against Beijing for its continued transactions. He vehemently dismissed media narratives suggesting reluctance to confront China, asserting that both nations share common goals in reopening the Strait of Hormuz and preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
This aggressive posture follows Treasury's recent proposed rulemaking on Friday, which would, if finalized, sever the Emirati branches of Banque Misr, Egypt's second-largest bank, from accessing the U.S. financial system. While this step signals a readiness to target financial institutions facilitating Iranian trade, it also highlights the administration's cautious approach to directly penalizing major trading partners like China and India, opting for warnings and indirect measures over immediate blanket sanctions.
