US launches ‘endgame’ against Iran with ‘greatest financial offensive ever,’ says Treasury Secretary

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US has initiated its “endgame” against Iran with a massive “financial offensive” aimed at completely isolating Tehran.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the United States is entering the “endgame” of its campaign against Iran, pledging a sweeping new financial offensive designed to sever Tehran’s remaining economic ties to the outside world and punish foreign countries and companies that continue doing business with the Islamic Republic.

“At dawn begins an economic D-Day, the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,” Bessent wrote in an opinion piece published Sunday.

He said US military operations had already severely damaged Iran’s armed forces and nuclear capabilities, adding: “Now we are entering endgame.”

Bessent is expected to unveil details of the new sanctions at a Treasury press conference Monday afternoon in Washington.

He has described the measures as the toughest sanctions campaign ever imposed by the United States and indicated that Washington will increasingly turn its attention to the foreign banks, shipping companies, traders and governments that allow Iranian commerce to continue.

The effort represents an intensification of President Donald Trump’s campaign to economically isolate Iran following nearly six months of war and comes as Washington seeks to translate the damage inflicted on Iran militarily into sustained financial pressure on the government in Tehran.

Bessent said last week that the strategy amounts to a combination of military and economic pressure.

“We have the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history,” he said. He also suggested that increasingly relying on economic measures could reduce the likelihood of another major round of US military strikes.

Trump announced the new campaign on August 19, declaring that Iran would face “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale.”

He warned that countries allowing their banks, businesses, airports or government bodies to sustain Iranian trade would face “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences.”

The warning significantly expands the potential reach of Washington’s pressure campaign beyond Iranian entities themselves.

The administration is targeting oil sales, cash transfers, currency exchanges, front companies, shipping registries and other networks Tehran has used to circumvent years of US sanctions.

The Treasury Department has already been steadily expanding sanctions against those networks.

In July, it targeted more than 50 people, companies and vessels connected to the shipping empire of Iranian businessman Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani.

Treasury said at the time that more than 200 individuals, entities and vessels associated with that network had been sanctioned across successive rounds of enforcement.

One of the most consequential questions is how aggressively Washington will enforce secondary sanctions against countries that continue purchasing Iranian oil or facilitating Iranian commerce.

China is particularly important to Tehran. It purchased more than 80% of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data cited by Reuters, and Bessent has publicly called for Beijing to cooperate with the new US campaign.

The administration’s strategy could also put pressure on commercial hubs and financial centers that have historically provided Iran with access to international markets.

The United Arab Emirates announced last week that it was halting trade and financial activity with Iran amid escalating regional tensions, potentially closing off one of Tehran’s most important commercial gateways.

Iran has responded defiantly to the American threats.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Washington’s return to intensified sanctions “shows that they are desperate,” arguing that previous US military and economic pressure had failed. He predicted that “this new issue of theirs will fail as well.”

Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, went further, warning countries in the region against assisting Washington.

“If Trump wants to do something, we will retaliate in a seismic manner,” Rezaei said, while also threatening alternative oil-shipping routes in the Persian Gulf.

The confrontation is unfolding as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains severely disrupted.

Traffic through the waterway, which before the war carried roughly one-fifth of globally traded oil, has fallen sharply as Iran has restricted passage and the US has maintained pressure on Iranian ports and shipping. The disruption has contributed to higher global energy prices.

Diplomatic efforts have nevertheless continued. Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is scheduled to visit Tehran on Monday as Islamabad attempts to mediate between Iran and the United States, while Oman continues separate discussions with Tehran concerning the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has also called for a diplomatic resolution, even as other senior Iranian officials threaten retaliation. An interim understanding reached earlier this summer provided a 60-day period for negotiations on ending the war and addressing Iran’s nuclear program, but that period expired without a comprehensive agreement.

blockadeIranIran warScott Bessent