Latest sanctions on Iran risk strengthening Tehran and undermining US credibility

The Conversation (UK) reports that the United States has launched a new sanctions campaign against Iran, dubbed Operation Economic Outcast. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it the toughest sanctions in history, threatening to cut any nation still trading with Iran out of the dollar system. China, which buys most of Iran's oil, has warned it will retaliate if its companies are hit. Iran's economy minister says Tehran has been preparing for this and has a two-year plan. The piece notes that Iran has decades of experience evading sanctions, and despite US pressure in 2025, China still imported about one point three eight million barrels of Iranian oil per day. Meanwhile, military strikes have not achieved Washington's goals, and traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen by ninety percent. Iran even granted Iraq special permission to move its own oil through the strait. Inflation in Iran is running at sixty-six percent, and the rial is at a historic low. But the analysis argues that making Iran poorer is not the same as making it weaker, and that sanctions worked in the past only when they led to diplomacy, like the 2015 nuclear deal.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton