U.S. Treasury Secretary to detail plans to isolate Iran’s economy on Monday

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. will soon unveil its plan to economically isolate Iran and its trading partners, after President Donald Trump threatened Tehran and others with “an ECONOMIC D-DAY” to end the current stalemate in the Middle East.

Bessent, in a CNBC interview, said he would hold a press conference on Monday to “talk about exactly what we’re going to do” and sought to ratchet up pressure on U.S. allies to join the effort.

“Economic pressure means that we are going to all of our allies — and this is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world — and we are going to them and saying, ‘You are either with us or against us,’” Bessent said.

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The threats — echoing language used by then-President George W. Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks — come after months of military strikes and a full naval blockade of Iran’s ports failed to force Tehran to capitulate.

Neither Trump nor Bessent specified exactly what measures they would take or which countries would be targeted, but the warnings put an immediate focus on China, which buys the bulk of Iran’s oil. Brent crude prices advanced for a fifth day to about US$94 a barrel, reaching the highest this month.

Asked on Thursday if China would be targeted, Bessent replied that “many conversations are best to have in private,” and said that everyone wants the vital Strait of Hormuz open again to commercial traffic.

“Keep in mind that the Chinese get 50 per cent of their energy from inside from the Gulf,” Bessent added. “So it would do them a big service to get with the program.”

In its first reaction to Trump’s comments, Beijing said sanctions and pressure wouldn’t work and called for a diplomatic resolution. Iran, meanwhile, said Trump’s threats were a “diversion” from America’s own crises of unprecedented debt and surging interest costs.