“Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless and their country is hanging by a thread,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday evening, August 19. Two hundred words later, in the same post: “we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.” The post does not explain why a country hanging by a thread requires a coalition against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The operative part is addressed to third countries, not to Tehran. “ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences. Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies \u2014 It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No new instrument was named. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the coming measures a week earlier as a combination of economic isolation and a continued blockade of Iranian ports. The pressure campaign has run since April under the name Operation Economic Fury. “Economic D-Day” renames it and changes the addressee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strangulation was complete before it was announced. Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, told the Mehr news agency that oil exports had effectively stopped. “The same thing has happened to us and it is a reality that we are not exporting oil,” he said. He added that Washington had released none of Iran’s frozen funds, although the release was written into the memorandum the two sides signed in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hemmati said the opposite thing in the same conversation. Banking obstacles between Iran and Iraq have been cleared, Baghdad has agreed to issue guarantees to Iranian contractors against Iranian assets held in Iraqi banks, and Tehran expects access within weeks. The sum runs to roughly $10 billion to $11 billion in accumulated payments for gas and electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Emirates closed trade with Iran on Tuesday, a day before the post, and not at American request. Two ballistic missiles came down in the Gulf. The UAE Defense Ministry said they were aimed at maritime traffic; Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei denied Iran had fired them; the Emirati Foreign Ministry announced that all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran were halted until further notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cost of that decision is measurable. World Trade Organization figures for 2024 put the UAE at more than 30 percent of Iranian imports, about $21 billion, and at nearly 13 percent of Iranian exports, about $7 billion. Dubai worked as a gateway rather than a supplier, giving Iran third-country goods, payment infrastructure and re-export. Closing the gateway closes part of Abu Dhabi’s own function as a regional financial center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi answered on Thursday. “The so-called ‘Economic D-Day’ is a diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs. Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat \u2014 and enmity of Iranians. US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide,” he wrote, attaching a New York Times article on US national debt crossing $40 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement does not change Iran’s position. Exports were at zero before the post, the Emirati gateway shut before the post, and the Iraqi channel opens regardless of the post. It changes the position of American partners in the Gulf. Washington has turned the Iran file into a compliance test for allies, and the allies pay for compliance. Dubai now chooses between working as a financial center and being known as an enforcer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Their navy is gone, their air force is destroyed, their military factories are now rubble, their currency is worthless and their country is hanging by a thread,” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday evening, August 19. Two hundred words later, in the same post: “we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.” The post does not explain why a country hanging by a thread requires a coalition against it. The operative part is addressed to third countries, not to Tehran. “ANY country that allows its… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,37],"tags":[109,253,107,108,242],"class_list":["post-8875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activity","category-articles-en","tag-geopolitics","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-usa"],"yoast_head":"\n