WASHINGTON
\nUS President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to hit Iran hard economically, a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would impose measures on Tehran that have \u201cnever been seen\u201d as soon as next week.
\nThe United States, \u200cUnited Nations and European Union have applied sanctions, implemented trade embargoes and frozen assets since the late 1970s over Iran\u2019s nuclear program, human rights violations and support for militant groups. Since the Iran war began in February, Washington has levied additional maritime, energy and financial sanctions and started a naval blockade.
\nData from the US Treasury Department\u2019s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) shows the agency has imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 people, vessels and aircraft since Trump began his second term. Recent measures have targeted Iran\u2019s shadow oil fleet; shipping insurers; entities and people enabling Iran\u2019s acquisition of weapons; and digital exchanges, freezing an estimated $500 billion in Iran-linked cryptocurrency.
\nExperts say the Trump administration also can try these options: Chinese independent refineries known as \u201cteapots\u201d account for a quarter of Chinese refinery capacity. They operate with narrow and sometimes negative profit margins.
\nChina buys more than 80 percent of Iran\u2019s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler. Independent refiners absorb much of this trade, exposing them to so-called secondary measures that penalize entities helping a primary sanctions target. Past US sanctions have deterred larger independent refiners from buying Iranian oil. But the independent refineries are somewhat immune since they have little exposure to the US financial system, sanctions experts say.
\nOFAC has imposed secondary sanctions on smaller China- and Hong Kong-based entities accused of processing billions of dollars in Iranian oil and helping to fund weapons procurement. Treasury has warned two larger Chinese banks they could face secondary sanctions if Iranian funds were found moving through their systems, but has stopped short of designating them.
\nHitting those two banks, which US officials have not publicly identified, or imposing other sanctions could have a chilling effect on bigger financial institutions, sanctions experts said, although they warned it could also trigger retaliatory actions by Beijing.
\nTrump administration officials have sought to play down tensions between Washington and Beijing ahead of an expected meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping later this year. They worry that China could curtail exports of critical minerals that are essential to advanced technology production at a time when the US and Western allies are still trying to develop their own supplies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON US President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to hit Iran hard economically, a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would impose measures on Tehran that have \u201cnever been seen\u201d as soon as next week. The United States, \u200cUnited Nations and European Union have applied sanctions, implemented trade embargoes and frozen assets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n