President Trump threats economic warfare in latest shift in strategy with Iran
WASHINGTON (TNND) — The details are scant, but President Donald Trump says his plan will be the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” part of his latest shift in strategy in the war with Iran.
But the Strait of Hormuz has largely been closed for months, a defiant Iran threatening shipping traffic and asking for war reparations. (TNND)
In a post online, the President threatened “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.”
On Wednesday, he was asked to provide more details about the new sanctions on Iran.
Well, we have things that we could sanction. We have very draconian sanctions and we’ll uh, see what happens. Right now the Strait is open,” Trump said.
But the Strait of Hormuz has largely been closed for months, a defiant Iran threatening shipping traffic and asking for war reparations.
In a post on X, Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi shared a New York Times article about U.S.debt hitting $40 trillion.
Posting online: the so-called “Economic D-day” is a diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs.
Additionally, the Financial Times reports Iranian leaders are threatening attacks on U.S. military targets in Europe
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies created a map illustrating Iran’s ballistic missile ranges do pose a threat.
Iran has already endured nearly 50 years of sanctions and in recent years and has become part of what the U.S. Government referred to in a report as “the axis of Autocracy,” with China, Russia and North Korea.
“China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are forging closer strategic, military, and economic ties that increase their ability—individually and collectively—to challenge the interests of the United States and its allies and partners around the world.”
Schanzer said he questions whether sanctions violations will be punished since they rarely have been in the past.
“The question that I have is whether there are levers that we can pull right now where we threaten the Chinese or the Russians from further engagement with the regime. We basically say, you know, do not engage or we will, you know, fill in the blanks: impose tariffs, introduce new weapons into the theater for Ukraine, support Taiwan in ways that we haven’t before. In other words, things that matter to Russia and China. We need to make sure that they understand that there are consequences for their actions, rather than just looking the other way and pretending that it’s not happening, which I think to a large extent has been the policy of the US until now,” he said.
Schanzer said Iran’s economy and military have both been battered, and it could be just a matter of time before they break.
“There is no handbook for bringing down the regime. Sometimes it’s like the straw that broke the camel’s back. I think economically it’s been battered, militarily, it’s been battered diplomatically. It’s isolated domestically at home. The people truly hate their regime,” he said.
Some critics in Washington said Trump’s economic strategy may be out of necessity because, at least according to several reports, America’s weapons stockpile is dwindling, so further military escalation may simply not be an option.