Iran in turn vowed to shut down all oil exports from the Gulf "if the economic war continues." US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Monday.
"At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary," Bessent wrote in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Sunday.
Iran has been bracing for the sanctions for days, issuing a series of strongly worded statements hinting at a major military response.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, on Sunday suggested economic retaliation. "If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported, neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf," Rezaei wrote in a social media post. He added that Iran will regard any country’s participation in or support for America’s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war.
