US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has told Washington’s allies they must choose between backing or opposing the United States’ push to economically isolate Iran, as President Donald Trump moves to intensify pressure on Tehran. Bessent told a US broadcaster that the campaign would amount to the largest coordinated economic isolation effort in history, framing the choice facing allied nations as a binary one. Asked whether Washington intends to pressure China into joining the effort, Bessent said certain conversations are best conducted privately, while urging Beijing to align itself with the campaign. He said the administration’s plan to sharply escalate sanctions and economic pressure on Iran is ultimately designed to bring down the Iranian government, predicting the strategy would work and lead to the regime’s collapse. Bessent added that expanded economic pressure could actually lower the odds of the United States resuming large scale military action against Iran, arguing that a maximum pressure economic approach makes a return to major combat operations less likely. He said he plans to hold a press conference Monday to detail the administration’s next steps regarding Iran. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the latest round of US sanctions, calling them a violation of international law and an attempt to undermine the country’s sovereignty. In a statement, the ministry said Washington had unveiled comprehensive economic sanctions despite previously claiming its measures targeted the government rather than ordinary Iranians. Tehran argued there is no legal or economic justification for the sanctions and described them as part of a broader US policy that threatens the international system and undermines rules governing relations between states. The ministry said the sanctions explicitly target Iranian citizens and institutions and represent a continuation of hostile American policy, adding that economic pressure functions as the flip side of military aggression. Iranian officials called the new measures a repeat of a strategy that has already failed and said the country would not bow to the pressure, vowing to defend its sovereignty and respond to what it characterized as hostile US actions. Separately, Egypt and Qatar emphasized the need for continued coordination toward a final, sustainable agreement to end the broader Middle East war while addressing the concerns of Gulf states, according to a statement from Qatar’s foreign ministry. The two countries discussed regional developments and diplomatic efforts aimed at reducing tensions and strengthening stability, and both underscored the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and protecting the security and freedom of maritime navigation, calling uninterrupted trade through the waterway essential to both regional and global economic stability. Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said traffic through the Strait of Hormuz needs to return to pre war conditions, adding that no party to the conflict should attempt to pressure or blackmail the other. Speaking at a press conference following talks in El Alamein, Egypt, he said the war’s consequences have been severe both within the Gulf region and beyond, and called for a return to how things stood before the conflict began, condemning any threats or obstacles standing in the way. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned separately that Saudi Arabia will be unable to contain Yemen’s Houthi movement as the group escalates attacks on the kingdom. A Guards spokesman said Saudi Arabia cannot stay safe from Houthi attacks, arguing that recent days have shown that the more the kingdom strikes, the more it gets hit in return. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed Trump’s economic threats as an attempt to distract American public attention from domestic financial troubles, including record debt levels and rising interest costs. He said Washington’s continued reliance on what he called failed policies would only produce further failures and further alienate the Iranian public, describing US economic pressure as a threat to the global economy and to national sovereignty more broadly. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi added that the US has shifted to what he called an economic war after failing to achieve results militarily, arguing that Washington’s need to compensate for miscalculations is driving it toward a bigger failure. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, during a visit to Baghdad, met with Faiq Zaidan, president of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, and blamed the United States for recent regional conflicts and disruptions to Gulf energy routes, while highlighting opportunities for deeper cooperation between Iran and Iraq. Separately, Iranian state media reported that authorities executed a man identified as Qaem Hosseini, a foreign national, over charges tied to his alleged role in nationwide protests in January, including accusations that he participated in events that led to the deaths of security force members. Trump underscored the stakes of the broader campaign in a social media post Wednesday evening, warning that any country allowing its financial institutions, businesses, airports or government entities to provide Iran with any kind of lifeline would face tremendous economic consequences. He promised what he called economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale, though he offered few specific details. The war between the US and Iran, now in its sixth month, has killed thousands of people and drawn in countries across the Gulf, rattling global markets as Iran demonstrated its ability to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that carried roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil before the conflict began. Two previous ceasefire agreements between Washington and Tehran, announced in April and June, both collapsed shortly after being reached, even as Israel has largely pulled back from direct fighting with Iran to focus its attacks on civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.
