LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The Trump administration is threatening crippling new economic pressures on Iran. They want that pressure to force Iran back into negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says next week, he'll lay out what new economic pressure on Iran looks like. Diplomatic efforts to revive peace talks have completely stalled after a temporary ceasefire was called off weeks ago.
FADEL: With us is NPR's Emily Feng to explain the latest. Good morning, Emily.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: So the U.S. has already - it already has so many sanctions on Iran, so much economic pressure on Iran. So what exactly is the president threatening beyond what's already being done?
FENG: Well, he wrote on Truth Social, the social media site, that any country that allows institutions or businesses to provide, quote, "any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences." He appears here to be referring to activity like smuggling Iranian oil out or helping Iran buy goods abroad. As you note, though, the U.S. already has extensive sanctions that makes a lot of international trade with Western countries impossible. And already in June, the U.S. took it one step further. They put secondary sanctions on entities that were helping Iran evade sanctions.
So as Sacha mentioned earlier, Treasury Secretary Bessent said he's going to hold a press conference on Monday to explain what this new, quote, "economic D-Day," as President Trump is calling, will entail. But what is notable to me is the focus seems to be on countries and their governments now, so not just on businesses and economic fronts. And the big question that stands out is how this might affect China.
FADEL: OK. Wait. How is China connected to this?
FENG: So until now, the U.S. has sanctioned entities that ship or refine oil or move money around that allows China to buy about 80% to 90% of Iran's oil before the war. But the U.S. has largely held off on sanctioning the governments of those entities - governments like that of China's. That might change. China has been one of the top places for money laundering and financial fronts from moving Iranian money around. The U.S. Treasury actually sanctioned several of those fronts in June. And China was the only country that Bessent mentioned - you know, singled out this week. Here's an interview he did with CNBC yesterday.
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SCOTT BESSENT: A reopening of the strait benefits China. Unfortunately, they'd been buying - they were the largest consumer of Iranian oil. They were buying about 90% of it.
FENG: Though when he was asked specifically if China might be targeted under these new economic pressures, Bessent declined to answer.
FADEL: Interesting. Iran's economy was already struggling before the U.S. and Israel started this war. How is it faring now, and will even more sanctions work?
FENG: That is the big question. Iran's economy is struggling even more. A U.S. blockade has cut its economy off from the rest of the world. People there cannot get goods from outside the country for the most part. But Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the think tank Center for International Policy in Washington, says ideological hardliners now have control of parts of Iran's government. So the economy is not their priority.
SINA TOOSSI: There's this existential threat that the Iranians have been faced with, so they're willing to bear much greater economic costs to kind of secure their survival. Whereas for the U.S., it's ultimately - you know, for the average American, the average voter - we have much less at stake here.
FENG: He notes Iran does want promises of sanctions relief. They really want the U.S. to unfreeze tens of billions of dollars of Iranian assets abroad. But there's also widespread distrust of the U.S. And arguably, laying on even more sanctions on Iran would only increase that distrust and make the case that the U.S. will never allow for sanctions relief on Iran.
FADEL: NPR's Emily Feng. Thank you, Emily.
FENG: Thanks, Leila. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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