Trump administration unveils new Iran sanctions

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The Trump administration called it the economic D-Day for Iran, but unlike the surprise U.S. landing in France during World War II, this D-Day was more of a warning to countries that sanctions are coming.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Here’s how Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it in his news conference Monday.

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SCOTT BESSENT: We are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?

MARTIN: The Trump administration has struggled to find an exit ramp to the war against Iran. Now it’s trying to step up the financial pressure instead. In a few minutes, we’ll speak with a former head of the office that manages these types of sanctions, but we’re going to begin with the latest information.

FADEL: Joining us to talk about this is NPR’s diplomatic correspondent, Michele Kelemen. Good morning, Michele.

MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: OK. So the Trump administration calls this Operation Economic Outcast. What’s the plan here?

KELEMEN: I mean, the U.S. wants to make the choices clear to Iran. It’s either economic isolation and a subsistence economy or a path back to normal relations with the world. But the trouble is, there are a lot of gray areas, and that’s what Bessent is trying to deal with. He’s warning countries that the U.S. knows how Iran is evading sanctions. He says the Treasury Department – and these are his words – have mapped every node, every facilitator, every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions, and now the U.S. is looking at Iran’s dealings in cryptocurrency, technology, gold, aviation and shipping. The Treasury secretary says no country or business is above the reach of U.S. sanctions. Take a listen.

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BESSENT: We know who they are. They know who they are. So when the hammer of U.S. Treasury actions falls upon them, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

KELEMEN: He announced sanctions on 60 entities and individuals but didn’t say when that hammer of broader sanctions might hit major banks, for instance, in countries that continue to do business with Iran.

FADEL: Now, he didn’t single out China, Iran’s biggest customer for oil, or other countries in public, right? Why not?

KELEMEN: Yeah. I mean, he said President Trump is having private diplomatic conversations with world leaders about all of this. And, of course, China’s president, Xi Jinping, is expected to visit the White House next month, and China views the U.S. sanctions as illegal. The Trump administration did add some Chinese companies to the blacklist, but it’s not clear how far the Trump administration is really going to push China ahead of Xi’s visit. Most of this is really just a rebranded sanctions campaign at the moment.

FADEL: We’re nearly six months into the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. It will be six months at the end of the week. So why this big talk about new economic pressure now?

KELEMEN: Yeah. I mean, the war has lasted much longer than President Trump initially predicted. And remember, when he started the war, he was telling Iranians who had been protesting the regime that soon they’re going to be able to take over their country and set a new course.

FADEL: Yeah.

KELEMEN: But months later, we’re seeing a hardened Iranian regime. It’s been striking U.S. assets across the region in allied Gulf states and now threatening again to block all oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

FADEL: Did Bessent talk about an endgame for these sanctions?

KELEMEN: Not really. But take a listen to his message to ordinary Iranian soldiers.

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BESSENT: As more and more of your paychecks stop or are supposedly just delayed, ask whether your commanders are leading your country to triumph or to ruin, and recall that the Berlin Wall fell when ordinary soldiers decided not to shoot.

KELEMEN: So there they are again, counting on regime change as a way to resolve this. But in the meantime, they still need to find ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

FADEL: That’s NPR’s Michele Kelemen. Thank you, Michele.

KELEMEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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