On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced “Operation Economic Outcast” that is being overseen by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The goal is to tighten an economic noose around Iran’s industries, such as technology, gold, and shipping, to cut off revenue streams that are keeping the regime in power, Fox News reported.
Iran has been the target of Western sanctions going back decades, but the regime has survived and thrived with backdoor deals and black-market sales that have kept the regime wealthy and in power.
"Treasury has mapped every node, every facilitator, and every network that Iran has used to smuggle oil and evade sanctions,” Bessent told reporters at a Monday news conference.
A second strategy, and a key one, is to pressure other nations to sever economic ties with Iran or face economic repercussions from the U.S.
Both of those strategies are being called "economic asphyxiation" on Tehran and its military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that controls the levers of power.
Reacting to Secretary Bessent’s announcement, Hudson Institute senior fellow Brigham McCown told “Washington Watch” the economic noose is tightening after years of weak sanctions.
What the U.S. Treasury Department has done, he explained, is take time to track Tehran’s numerous financial schemes and revenue streams, knowing much of it leads to secretive black-market trading that has escaped sanctions.
“This is a stranglehold because we now know what banks trade with Iran, what front companies they have,” McCown said.
McCown acknowledged that one key ally of Tehran – China – has not been mentioned publicly by the Trump administration.
That fact also got noticed by The Wall Street Journal in a Tuesday story, which noted the Trump administration has “stopped short” of penalizing the nation that has most helped Iran overcome years of economic sanctions.
China was not mentioned by Bessent, “but that’s where a lot of this is,” McCown said, referring to black-market trading and oil revenues.
China, which is America’s top economic rival, is also the largest importer of Iran’s crude oil.
A not-so-secret plan of Trump’s second term is his attempt to isolate China from its international trading partners to weaken the grip of the Chinese Communist Party.
Reacting to Bessent’s announcement, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, “China’s cooperation with Iran is conducted within the framework of international law and should not be disrupted.”
McCown said the U.S. learned during “Operation Epic Fury” that it’s facing a regime determined to hold onto power. Even though the U.S. underestimated its enemy, he added, the Trump administration knows shutting off revenue sources could starve Tehran.
“For them, this is life or death survival of the regime,” McCown advised. “So they're not going to give up quickly.”
