Bessent Says US to Sanction Another Bank, Impose Weekly Iran-Related Sanctions - Aman Shanti News

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announces a new set of sanctions against Iran, describing them as “an economic D-Day”, in the Cash Room at the Treasury Department in Washington on Aug. 24, 2026. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The United States plans to target another bank this week and impose further secondary sanctions on Iran, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday, as Washington intensifies efforts to economically isolate Tehran.

After imposing penalties on the United Arab Emirates branches of Egypt’s Banque Misr on Friday over alleged financial links to Iran, Bessent said ⁠the next step may be to cut an institution off entirely from the dollar-based financial system.

“You’re going to see a lot more of these every week,” Bessent said. “We’re starting with the banks, and we’re telling the banks it’s not okay to have Iranian money and to aid the regime.”

Bessent did not provide details about the bank that will be targeted in the new sanctions.

“This is going to be financial violence if we have to,” he said. “We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop.”

As part of Operation Economic Outcast, a broader sanctions campaign launched on Aug. 24 to sever Iran’s financial lifelines, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned dozens of entities, individuals, and vessels across multiple jurisdictions for their alleged roles in Iran’s cyber operations, oil revenue networks, and procurement of illicit nuclear and missile technology.

Bessent said on Sunday “all options are on the table” regarding sanctions on China, the largest buyer of Iranian oil, noting that Beijing had agreed on the need to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to ensure that Tehran cannot develop nuclear weapons.

Bessent made the remarks ahead of Group of 20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina, scheduled for Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, where he aims to raise the issue and urge members to cut economic ties with Iran. Bessent said he would speak to his Chinese counterparts at the meetings.

The Treasury Department warned in April that it would hit foreign banks and financial institutions with secondary sanctions if they “continue to support Iran’s activities” while the regime remains at war with the United States.

Bessent said at the time that the United States would target Iran with the “financial equivalent” of a bombing campaign and sent letters to financial institutions in China, Hong Kong, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, threatening secondary sanctions if they were found to be doing business with the Iranian regime.

Ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, on August 10, 2026. (Ali Saeedi/Getty Images) — Ships are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Bandar Abbas, Iran, on August 10, 2026. Ali Saeedi/Getty Images

Bessent said on Aug. 23 that U.S. President Donald Trump has created the conditions for the United States to use all of its agency, authority, and tools to cut off Tehran’s financial lifelines until Iran is completely isolated.

Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, had warned that if Iran is targeted for economic isolation, the country will block oil shipments through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. He added that Iran would treat any country that participates in or supports what he called America’s “economic war against the Iranian people” as engaging in an act of war against it.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Aug. 23 defended the memorandum of understanding signed between the two nations in mid-June as the best option for ending the current situation, which he described as “neither war nor peace.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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