The US Treasury Department plans to roll out new secondary sanctions every week to intensify economic pressure on Iran, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed Sunday.
"You're going to see a lot more of these every week," Bessent said ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 (G20) financial leaders in Asheville, North Carolina, confirming that announcements will come on a weekly basis.
The warning and threat follows on the heels of the US having sanctioned a couple UAE branches of a major Egyptian bank last week, after which some pundits called out the weakness and flimsiness of the action.
Treasury named the UAE branches of Egypt's Banque Misr, alleging financial ties to Iran and money laundering, cutting them off from the US financial system for obtaining dollars.
However, Banque Misr itself - which is Egypt's second largest financial institution - is at the moment not facing any direct Washington punitive measures. Treasury had made clear the new measures wouldn't apply to "Banque Misr operations in any other country."
What's more is that even the targeted UAE branches of the Egyptian institution appear to have an appeals window of sorts, and may be given a chance to rectify the matter over a period of 30 days. No other UAE bank has come under the same threats so far.
According to Al Jazeera:
Banque Misr UAE’s customers include “front companies used by Iran’s Ministry of Defence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to evade US sanctions, as well as to launder money on behalf of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei,” the Treasury said.
The US government’s proposed punishment is expected to come into effect in 30 days after a public comment period, and will not impact any other branches of the bank.
So much for 'Economic D-Day'...
And recall this scene from just a week ago:
Reporter: You describe this as an economic D-Day, but D-Day wasn’t a threat of invasion, and the U.S. didn’t give a timeline to Germany. Why not impose the sanctions today?
Bessent: Well, we are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? We believe that it is important to level set, and give people a cure period, but they should know that will move very quickly and we are serious. Secondary sanctions are a very powerful tool.
Still, Bessent continues to talk tough, telling the AP in a Sunday interview, "This is going to be financial violence if we have to."
"We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop," he added.
Bessent further previewed his plan to reinforce the message to G20 finance ministers and central bank governors this week, stressing: "There can be no leakage. You're either with us, or you're with the Iranians."
Notably, the Trump admin has been relatively silent on whether it intends to target Chinese entities, with Beijing having long been in effect an Iranian economic "lifeline".
The whole 'weekly' secondary sanctions rollout seems intended to just keep kicking the can down the road, as the US administration appears still in frantic search of a strategy for dealing with a continually defiant Iran. The endgame remains perfectly unclear.