Last night Trump announced “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!” This operation against Iran “will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”
“Today, I am also announcing that ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” he raged on.
“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies—It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat. These maniacs are on the ropes, and these HISTORIC MEASURES will cripple them and their ability to project terror worldwide.”
The Iranians are not impressed. After all, Trump has been waging economic warfare against Iran since he imposed his “maximum pressure” sanctions in 2018. Iran has been under various combinations of sanctions, in fact, ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, dismissed Trump’s latest threats of economic sanctions, calling them a “diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs,” in a posting on X, evidently referring to the U.S. government debt hitting $40 trillion this week.
“Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat—and enmity of Iranians. US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide.”
State media also dismissed Trump’s announcement as nothing new. The IRIB state broadcaster said it followed “the failure of military aggression” while the semi-official Tasnim news agency said the announcement was “not a new development,” reported Al Jazeera.
It said the U.S. “has been trying for years to block any financial and economic ties with Iran” but that Tehran has “learned how to circumvent these restrictions and has become very skilled at doing so.”
The semi-official Fars news agency also dismissed Trump’s claims as “delusional,” saying that the U.S. had repeatedly voiced assertions of Iran’s “imminent collapse” and military destruction without delivering concrete results.
Trump’s announcement came hours after the United Arab Emirates, a critical trade partner for Iran, suspended all financial ties with the country, accusing it of launching two ballistic missiles towards its waters. Tehran denied the claim, calling it a “false-flag operation.”
