US Treasury Secretary Bessent repeats Trump's 'Economic D-Day' threat as Iran warns US allies of 'act of war'

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday (local time) said that the Trump administration is entering the "endgame" in its campaign against Iran, announcing what he called an "economic D-Day" aimed at severing Iran's economic lifelines. This comes after Trump threatened Iran a crushing financial campaign. Iran and the US have entered a phase of economic warfare where they are avoiding full scale military attacks but are targeting each other's economic interests. The Strait of Hormuz has been a cruicial part of this economic warfare strategy with both sides threatening to block it completely. Now, with US issuing warnings about ‘economic D-Day’, it remains to be seen how things will pan out.

What Bessent said?

In a post on X, Bessent said, “President Trump has dismantled Iran's military capabilities, destroyed nearly 100 percent of its military factories, and buried its nuclear program.” "We are now entering the endgame. At dawn begins an economic D-Day -- the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary," he said. Bessent accused Iran of using security guarantees as a form of "extortion" and said Tehran had relied on the expectation that Iranian retaliation was certain while US enforcement could be negotiated. "The Islamic Republic has subsisted by dressing extortion as security guarantees. It has drawn strength from a calculus that regards Iranian retaliation as certain and American enforcement as negotiable," Bessent said. "Under President Trump, that era is over. And those who fear the danger of defying Tehran ought not to discount the cost of testing Washington," he added. Bessent said Trump had created the conditions for the US government to deploy its full range of authorities against Iran. "The President has created the conditions to leverage every agency, every authority and action many assumed we would never summon," he said. "Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone," Bessent added.

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Earlier on Wednesday, in a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran had “failed to take” the opportunity to make a deal, and would face “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale”. He also threatened new sanctions against any country that does business with Iran. “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 wrote.

Also Read: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issues sanctions warning to Oman over Strait of Hormuz toll

How Iran reacted?

Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei on Monday (local time) warned that Tehran could halt all oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz and elsewhere in the Persian Gulf if the United States' "economic war" against Iran continues. Rezaei, in a post on X, also warned that Iran would consider any country supporting or participating in the US economic campaign against Tehran to be an "act of war." "If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported. neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf. Iran will regard any country's participation in or support for America's economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war," Rezaei said. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf ridiculed the US for threatening economic sanctions. Additionally, according to Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei also slammed US' sanctions threat and said that war and sanctions are "not unfamiliar" to Iran. He noted that the Islamic Republic has been under sanctions for 20 years.