Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast as Washington shifted its war on Iran from airstrikes toward financial strangulation, a campaign he described as an unprecedented whole-of-government effort to isolate Tehran. Six months into the war, the fight has settled into stalemate, with energy markets under strain, inflation elevated, and ordinary people left to absorb the costs while states trade threats and sanctions.
The State's New Front
Bessent framed the campaign in military language that barely bothered to hide the logic underneath it. “In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe,” he said. The Treasury Department says it has mapped Iranian financial networks, oil smuggling operations, sanctions evasion mechanisms and funding channels linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC. That’s not diplomacy. It’s economic warfare with paperwork.
The Trump administration says the next phase will rely less on airstrikes and more on isolating Iran economically while keeping military deterrence in place. President Donald Trump said the US Navy had successfully cleared naval mines from the Strait of Hormuz. “All mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He also warned that Iran had been informed that any vessel attempting to lay additional mines would be “immediately and systematically destroyed.”
For decades, Iran has treated the Strait of Hormuz as one of its strategic anchors, and around one-fifth of global oil shipments traditionally moved through it. That leverage has always been part of the state game: threaten shipping, pressure markets, force negotiations. Washington’s answer now is to strip that leverage away while assuring global energy markets that international shipping can keep moving.
Pressure, Counterpressure, and the People Caught Between
Iran is answering with its own state tools. Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh called the new sanctions an “economic terrorist attack” and warned that Washington should “expect an attack” in response. “We know how to play the game too,” he said in an interview broadcast on Iranian state television. Iranian leaders have sought to respond through asymmetric means, including cyber attacks, threats by Iranian-backed proxy groups, maritime attacks and efforts to disrupt regional energy infrastructure. The language changes. The machinery doesn’t.
On August 25, Oman and Iran issued a joint statement after consultations between Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. They posted on X that they discussed restoring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz while respecting sovereignty. Both governments said they discussed a phased framework that could provide a practical basis for moving forward after the recent conflict. Safe navigation, sovereignty, phased framework — the vocabulary of states trying to manage a crisis they helped create.
Iran has also been in contact with Pakistan on reopening Hormuz, and the United States sent a message through Pakistan to Iran on the same issue. A separate report said Iran and Oman discussed a temporary Hormuz corridor as an impasse with Washington dragged on. Iran said the Oman deal does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The corridor talk reads like what it is: a temporary fix for a permanent confrontation.
Sanctions, Markets, and the NGO Mirage
China has criticized the new sanctions, warning that they would “only further intensify tensions” and arguing that China’s legitimate cooperation with Iran should not be disrupted. Chinese officials again opposed what they described as unilateral American sanctions. Iran’s Economy Minister said China and Russia have shown no indication that they intend to fully comply with Washington’s new campaign. China has a 25-year economic deal with Iran.
The pressure campaign has already reached Iranian merchants in Bandar Abbas, who said expanded US sanctions were worsening economic hardship. One report described a “busy day” as 20 tanker transfers moved oil from all Gulf states excluding Iran. That’s the real geography of this war: shipping lanes, sanctions lists, and the people who pay at the end of the chain.
The conflict has also fed political debate in Washington. One report said the US is not expected to launch new strikes against Iran for the time being, while focusing on economic pressure. Another said there would be no new Iran offensive for now as the US focuses on economic pressure. The same coverage said Trump’s “Economic D-Day” against Iran only fuels tensions, and that the US Secret Service is aware of an Iran threat against Barron Trump. Even the threat narrative gets folded back into the machinery, one more justification for the next round.
Diplomacy hasn’t stopped, because states never stop talking while they keep the pressure on. Oman has long played a key role in regional mediation, maintaining relations with both Washington and Tehran and often serving as a discreet channel for negotiations. Previous US-Iran nuclear talks also benefited from Omani mediation. Regional states are trying to prevent another escalation that could again threaten global energy markets. The markets matter. The people, less so. That part never changes.