Iran answers Trump’s ‘economic D-Day’

BS BULLETIN:

Iran is threatening retaliation after Trump’s new “economic D-Day” sanctions.
Tehran warns Gulf nations cooperating with Washington could be treated as enemies.
Hours after the sanctions announcement, a tanker was struck near the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump told the world Monday that countries continuing to do business with Iran would have a choice to make.

Iran has now offered those countries a choice of its own.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled what the Trump administration has dubbed its “economic D-Day” against Tehran, expanding sanctions and warning countries doing business with the Islamic Republic that continued financial ties could eventually cost them access to America’s financial system.

Daily BS reported on that announcement Monday. Now comes Iran’s answer.

Iranian officials are warning that Tehran will retaliate against the United States—and potentially against countries that help Washington tighten the economic noose.

Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned Gulf countries against cooperating with Trump’s campaign, saying nations that join America’s economic pressure could be treated as enemies.

“If any country in the region wants to cooperate with America in this economic war, we will consider that country an enemy,” Larijani warned, according to current reporting on the escalating confrontation.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei separately promised a “harsh response” to expanded American sanctions and warned countries against assisting Washington.

That matters because Bessent’s strategy depends heavily on exactly that cooperation.

The Treasury secretary isn’t merely trying to sanction Iranian companies.

He’s trying to make the rest of the world choose between doing business with Iran and doing business through the American-dominated financial system.

Bessent said Monday that countries maintaining financial relationships with Tehran will be given a “defined timeline” to cut those ties.

“If you do business with Iran, you will not do business with the United States,” Bessent warned.

The initial sanctions target roughly 60 Iran-linked entities and sectors including shipping, aviation, technology, gold and digital assets, with additional measures expected.

China is the elephant sitting rather conspicuously in the room.

Beijing remains Iran’s biggest oil customer, and any attempt to truly isolate Tehran economically eventually runs into the question of whether Washington is willing—and able—to punish Chinese entities for continuing to buy Iranian energy.

China has already condemned the American pressure campaign and warned that the new sanctions could further destabilize the global economy.

Iran, meanwhile, is making clear that it possesses leverage of a considerably less financial variety.

The Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has warned that continued pressure could bring retaliation against vital American interests and energy infrastructure, while threatening the flow of oil through one of the most important shipping corridors on Earth.

Then, hours after Bessent announced the new campaign, something happened in those waters.

A tanker near the Strait of Hormuz was struck by what maritime authorities described as an unknown projectile.

The incident occurred off Oman. The ship remained afloat and the crew was reported safe.

There is no confirmed evidence at this point that Iran carried out the strike.

But the timing guarantees that Washington—and everybody trying to move oil through the region—is paying attention.

This is becoming a high-stakes game of economic chicken. Trump is essentially telling Iran’s remaining trading partners: Choose Tehran and risk losing America.

Iran is telling its neighbors: Choose America and risk becoming our enemy.

And sitting between the two threats is the Strait of Hormuz, global oil supplies and a tanker that just got hit by something nobody has publicly identified.

So much for a quiet Monday.

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