US vows 'economic D-Day' as Iran threatens to halt all oil exports

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. threatened Iran with what it called "the greatest financial offensive ever marshalled" as it prepared to roll out economic sanctions on Monday \u200bthat target Iran's trade partners.Iran, in turn, vowed to shut down all oil exports from the Gulf "if the economic war continues."U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. EDT on Monday amid promises to reveal even more severe \u200cmeasures on a country that has endured near-continuous economic sanctions since the Islamic Revolution of 1979."At dawn begins an economic D-Day \u2014 the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary," Bessent wrote \u2060in an opinion piece published in the Financial Times on Sunday.The warring \u200bnations have not conducted military strikes against each other for weeks, \u2060but they also have not engaged in meaningful talks to end the six-month-old conflict.Thousands of people have died, most of them in Iran and Lebanon, since \u200cthe U.S. and Israel began strikes \u200con Feb. 28, degrading much of Iran's conventional military capacity and inflicting economic pain while killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali \u2060Khamenei.But Iran has preserved enough missile and drone capability to attack its Gulf neighbors and \u2060threaten oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, bringing shipping in the key waterway to a near standstill and pressuring world fuel prices. The exact state of Iran's nuclear program, which the Americans and Israelis aim to wipe out, remains unknown.Without detailing specific measures, Bessent signaled the U.S. would target "fearful nations" that practice "appeasement" by engaging with Iran's economy and financial system."They would do well to consider the consequences of sustaining it," he wrote in the Financial Times.Iran has been bracing for the sanctions for days, issuing a series of strongly worded statements suggesting it \u200cplanned a major military response.Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, on Sunday suggested economic retaliation."If \u200bthe 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. "Iran will regard any country's participation in or support for America's economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war."Bessent previously urged China to cooperate with the U