Middle East — 2026-08-22

US Treasury Secretary Vows Toughest Sanctions in History to Collapse Iran as Energy Prices Spike

BLUFMonday's package is unlikely to include secondary sanctions on Chinese oil buyers, leaving Washington's maximum-pressure campaign dependent on voluntary compliance from Iran's largest customer.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Thursday that Washington will impose "the toughest sanctions in history" on Iran alongside the existing naval blockade, saying "we are going to collapse this regime," with details to follow at a Monday press conference 123. Bessent said the campaign amounts to "the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world" and warned other countries they are "either with us or against us" on trade with Iran, while declining to say whether China, which buys more than 80 percent of Iran's seaborne oil exports, would face secondary sanctions 234. Brent crude rose 2.4 percent Thursday to $93.78 a barrel and WTI gained 2.7 percent following the remarks 5. Iran's armed forces chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Ali Abdollahi, said Friday the country would respond with "crushing, punishing and devastating responses," and Tehran's foreign ministry called the sanctions "economic terrorism" 4.

Analysis
Bessent's Monday sanctions package is unlikely to name Chinese banks or refiners as secondary-sanctions targets by Monday's press conference, since Washington has signaled it will preserve room for President Xi's upcoming White House visit and pending rare-earth talks. Bessent's refusal to confirm China as a target, favoring private diplomacy over public threats, points toward pressure applied through allied compliance and financial-system access rather than direct confrontation with Beijing. This judgment carries high confidence, reflecting consistent deflection on China across multiple statements from the Treasury Secretary this week. Oil prices already price in blockade and rhetoric risk, so a Monday package without China-specific measures would not reverse the market's upward trajectory, while inclusion would mark a sharp escalation risking retaliation against US rare-earth access. The sanctions escalation sits alongside Pezeshkian's concurrent claim to negotiate from strength and the three Hormuz shipping strikes since early August, which together define the space for any diplomatic track.

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