JERUSALEM, Israel – The Trump administration is beginning to explain its D-Day plan to strangle Iran economically. The White House believes it can topple the regime without a military attack.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claims the economic plan is unprecedented, and Washington has a clear warning for other countries as the U.S. squeezes Tehran.
He declared, “This is going to be the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world, and we are going to them and saying, ‘You are either with us or against us. You want this murderous regime to end.'”
Bessent noted that the plan will require U.S. allies and others to stop all economic activity with the Iranian regime or face the consequences.
“If you insist on…doing business with them, either transferring money, buying their oil, (or) doing seaborne ship transport first, then the U.S.Treasury and the U.S. government, they will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you.”
Bessent added, “So it is time for our allies and the rest of the world to make a decision, and we are going to squash the economy of, of this murderous regime.”
***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you receive the latest news from a Christian perspective.***
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denounced the U.S. economic threats and warned that those “failed policies” will stir more hostility among Iranians.
Other reports indicate that Iran’s leaders have begun implementing measures, such as rationing, to weather the economic storm. They’re betting that high oil prices will force the White House to stop.
Bessent said the president still has the military option, but believes the economic plan will work as it did in Venezuela and is working now in Cuba.
Middle East expert Amir Hamidi told CBN News, “Ultimately, I do believe the greatest long-term challenges (to Iran) may not come fast, or from Washington or Israel. It may come from the widening of the political and economic divide between the Iranian government and the Iranian people.”
Hamidi, born in Iran, says economic and living conditions inside Iran are abysmal.
“Because it’s no security,” he explained, citing the Iranians’ dilemma. “Executions are continuing. Imprisonment continues. And the arrests (continue). And my prices are rising unbelievably.”
Hamidi asserts that the people are waiting. “It’s like a tsunami. It is going to explode.”
He also predicts that the protests will resume.
“Absolutely, absolutely. It is just the – it’s a peace before (the) earthquake. People are waiting because they don’t have anything to lose. They don’t have employment, they don’t have (a) future. They don’t have investments. They are thinking about their next meal, and they have no freedom. And because of that, I think it’s –and we’re ready to explode.”
