Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday unveiled what he called an 'economic D-Day' against Iran, expanding secondary sanctions on any entity or country that does business with the regime. Bessent said nations that help Iran will be cut off from the dollar-based financial system entirely.
The strategy targets five channels Bessent described as Iran's 'most vital lifelines': digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. The United Arab Emirates has already moved in the same direction, shutting down all trade and transactions with Iran earlier this month — severing one of the regime's last major links to the global economy.
Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, argued on X that those same channels are lifelines for ordinary Iranians, not just the regime — gold and crypto as inflation hedges, technology as a connection to the outside world, aviation and shipping as routes for family visits, food, and medicine. Fortune also noted crypto, tech, and shipping front companies are documented tools the regime uses to dodge sanctions and keep revenue flowing.
The pressure lands on an economy already buckling. Inflation has soared above 80%, with some food staples up 100%. The rial has shed another 30% of its value this year after last year's collapse triggered nationwide protests. The IMF projected in April that Iran's economy will contract 6.1% this year — its worst downturn in decades — and a labor ministry official put job losses at more than 1 million by late May.
A U.S. naval blockade has compounded the damage, blocking Iranian oil exports and fuel imports alike, producing long gas lines even as Tehran's own subsidies keep demand artificially high. The regime has been reluctant to raise fuel prices for fear of reigniting the kind of unrest seen in January, when, according to the report, the government killed thousands in a crackdown.
Signs of strain are surfacing again. Oil and gas workers in Asaluyeh protested this week over living costs, state media reported. Laid-off steelworkers, petrochemical workers, and unpaid teachers have also gone public with grievances in recent weeks.
Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's chief negotiator, acknowledged the stakes while visiting Iraq: 'No matter how strong we are militarily, if the people are hungry and we do not have financial circulation, economic growth and domestic production, we will not endure.' Days later he told officials their duty was to resolve 'the people's problems' while 'preserving the achievements of resistance' — a line that captures the regime's bind between hardliners and a restless population.
The Trump administration has pivoted from military strikes to economic warfare, betting that isolating Iran from the dollar system will do what missiles could not. The numbers come first: an 80% inflation rate and a shrinking economy are not abstractions to a regime that survives on patronage and subsidized fuel.
Capital rewards clear rules, and Tehran offers none — only price controls, currency collapse, and a state that meets economic distress with repression rather than reform. Sovereign nations that keep trading with a regime under this kind of pressure are choosing the ledger over the rule of law, and Washington's message, delivered through Treasury rather than the Pentagon, is that the cost of that choice will now be paid in dollars.
