The United States will impose what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran, while urging China and other countries to cooperate with Washington.
Bessent will hold a news conference on Monday to provide details of the new measures, as the United States continues to enforce its naval blockade of Iranian ports and the Strait of Hormuz remains off to most maritime traffic, after months of conflict.
“It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade (on Iran), and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history,” Bessent told CNBC.
“It is going to work in Iran and we are going to collapse this regime.”
Treasury Secretary Bessent on Iran:
We are going to have the toughest sanctions in history, and I will tell you, this will work.
It worked in Venezuela once we put up the blockade. It is working in Cuba right now, and it is going to work in Iran, and we are going to collapse… pic.twitter.com/58PDaOM12x
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 20, 2026
He echoed President Donald Trump‘s message to cooperate with Washington in implementation of the forthcoming sanctions.
“It is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision,” he said.
Trump on Wednesday warned of severe economic consequences for any country providing “any type of lifeline to Iran,” as Washington seeks to resolve a war it began alongside Israel on February 28, which saw the commercial shipping almost freeze from the world’s energy-rich Middle Eastern region.
Bessent said oil markets were misinterpreting the implications of the planned economic pressure, even as oil prices climbed to more than three-week highs on Thursday.
“I think oil markets are misinterpreting what this economic pressure means,” he said.
“We have asymmetric information, and I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this,” Bessent added. “If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart.”
Trump Vows ‘Economic D-Day’ for Iran, Warns World Capitals of Consequences if They Help Tehran
Asked whether the United States could target China for continuing to do business with Iran, Bessent said some discussions were better held privately.
“We are confident that everyone wants the Strait (of Hormuz) reopened, and for energy prices to come back down,” he said. “Keep in mind that the Chinese get 50 percent of their energy from inside the Gulf. So, it would do them a big service to get with the program.”
China buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Any further US economic pressure on China, a major exporter to the United States of goods including vital rare-earth minerals, could risk retaliation from Beijing.
Iran has endured punishing economic sanctions for nearly five decades, dating back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran condemns new US sanctions as ‘economic terrorism’ and ‘crimes against humanity’https://t.co/TSTQHFzSAH pic.twitter.com/csaA3FEo5O
— IRNA News Agency ☫ (@IrnaEnglish) August 20, 2026
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi described Trump’s comments as an attempt to divert American public attention from domestic financial problems, including record debt and rising interest rates.
Tehran on Thursday condemned a fresh round of U.S. economic and trade sanctions against Iran, describing them as “economic terrorism.”
In a statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the sanctions a “continuation of 73 years of hostility and animosity by American politicians toward the Iranian people.”
“US economic sanctions against Iran, which have targeted the fundamental human rights of individual Iranian citizens, constitute economic terrorism and a crime against humanity,” the ministry said.
.@VP: “We’ve been able to get a lot of oil and gas out of the Strait of Hormuz through the great work of our military and some of our folks on the commercial side. We gotta get more out, but that’s been a very successful thing because that is the Iranian leverage point.” pic.twitter.com/Pa56mcTqIg
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 20, 2026
The ministry said the latest sanctions followed what it described as two “American-Zionist wars on Iran” and Washington’s failure to force the Iranian people to submit to what Tehran called “illegitimate and inhumane demands.”
It also described the U.S. economic pressure as “the other side of the coin of war,” arguing that Washington’s reliance on both military and economic measures posed a threat to global peace and security.
Iran remains “steadfast and determined” to defend its national interests against US military, economic, political and psychological pressure, the statement added.
On Wednesday, Trump announced plans to launch what he called “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” describing his maximum-pressure campaign against Iran as “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”
He vowed to sever the financial channels supporting Tehran and warned that countries providing Iran with an economic “lifeline” through financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities would face severe economic consequences.
Calling the campaign an “Economic D-Day,” Trump urged US allies to join Washington’s latest effort to financially isolate and cripple Tehran.
Muhammad Luqman is Associate Editor at Views News Now. He writes on wide-ranging issues including economy, South Asia, the Middle East, agriculture, economy and innovation. Luqman has worked some of the leading news organizations and won acclaim for his original and research-based works.
