US to sanction another bank as economic pressure on Iran intensifies

The United States is tightening its financial noose around Iran with a deliberate, escalating campaign. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Sunday that Washington would sanction another bank this week—he would not say which one—as part of what officials are calling Operation Economic Outcast, a coordinated effort to economically isolate Tehran while truce negotiations remain stalled.

The move follows a pattern of intensifying pressure. Just days earlier, the Treasury Department had already cut off the UAE operations of Banque Misr, Egypt's second-largest bank, after accusing it of conducting business with the Iranian government. That action signaled a willingness to target major financial institutions directly. Now, with another unnamed bank in the crosshairs, Bessent made clear this is only the beginning. "You're going to see a lot more of these every week," he told Reuters on Sunday, ahead of a Group of 20 finance leaders meeting in Asheville, North Carolina. "We're starting with the banks, and we're telling the banks it's not OK to have Iranian money and to aid the regime."

The language Bessent used revealed the stakes and the strategy. "This is going to be financial violence if we have to," he told the Associated Press. "We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop." The threat was not merely rhetorical. In an interview with Reuters, Bessent suggested the next phase could involve cutting institutions entirely from the dollar-based financial system—a move that would effectively exile them from global commerce.

The campaign has already moved beyond banks. Last week, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on nearly 60 individuals and entities it accused of helping Iran generate oil revenue, procure weapons, and conduct cyber-operations. The scale and frequency of these actions represent a deliberate escalation, one timed to coincide with the breakdown in diplomatic talks between Washington and Tehran.

The conflict itself has resumed. On Sunday, for the first time since late July, violence flared again when Iran launched missiles at two US military bases in Jordan. The US had struck Larak Island in southern Iran just before. This cycle of attack and retaliation has created the conditions under which Bessent and other US officials believe economic pressure can work—when diplomacy has failed and military posturing dominates, financial isolation becomes a tool of statecraft.

Bessent is using the G20 meeting to build international support for the campaign. He plans to meet individually with finance ministers from the world's major and developing economies to encourage cooperation against Iran. He also signaled that China, which continues to trade with Tehran, is in his sights. "All options are on the table" in terms of sanctioning Beijing, he told AP, though he pushed back against suggestions that Washington was reluctant to confront China directly. He claimed both nations agreed on the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Iran has dismissed the sanctions as ineffective. Ali Madanizadeh, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, rejected the latest measures outright, saying they will fail. But the sheer velocity of the US campaign—weekly sanctions, threats of total financial exclusion, pressure on trading partners—suggests Washington is betting that cumulative economic pain will eventually force Tehran to the negotiating table on American terms. Whether that calculation proves correct remains to be seen, but for now, the financial pressure is only intensifying.