Six months into an unresolved military and economic confrontation, the United States has added 36 new sanctions against Iranian aviation entities and their foreign suppliers, extending a campaign it calls 'Operation Economic Outcast.' The measures reflect a governing belief in Washington that sustained financial strangulation will eventually bend Tehran toward negotiation — a belief Iran's leadership publicly and pointedly rejects. In the long arc of coercive diplomacy, this moment stands as a test of whether economic siege can succeed where military force has not, even as the world's fuel sup