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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast, adding Iran's digital asset, technology, gold, aviation and shipping sectors to those exposed to U.S. secondary sanctions, designating nearly 60 entities, individuals and vessels and suspending several general licenses. Bessent said any entity that launders money for Iran "will be removed from the U.S. dollar system."
Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and envoy for Syria, said in a statement to AP on Sunday that "United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged," after saying in a podcast interview on Friday that Israel "still" occupies the Golan against U.N. resolutions.
Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority said vessels that violate 'Iranian protocols for the Strait of Hormuz shall face restrictions on future passages, including fines, detention, or confiscation,' and urged cargo owners to check its 'Non-Compliant Vessels' list before chartering ships.
A day after his television interview, security council secretary Mohsen Rezaei wrote on X: '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. Iran will regard any country's participation in or support for America's economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war.'
The parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission approved Article 3 of its 'Strategic Action to Ensure the Security and Progress of the Strait of Hormuz' plan, under which ships from countries permitted to transit would pay for maritime, environmental, fuelling, insurance, safety and other services. Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said fees would be paid in rials or another currency Tehran designates.
In a Financial Times op-ed, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote that 'at dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary,' aimed at severing 'every economic lifeline' of the regime, and warned countries that buy and ship Iran's oil or let their banks be used. He gave no details ahead of a news conference set for Monday at 2 p.m. ET.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said the June memorandum with the U.S. was the best way out of a state of 'neither war nor peace,' that 'there is not a single provision in this agreement that amounts to capitulation,' and that 'the supreme leader sets the policies, and we will follow that path.' He also said Iran 'cannot continue with war forever.'
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, said on state television that 'any country participating in the imposition of economic restrictions against us is considered an enemy' and that Iran would harm its interests. If neighbours joined the U.S. 'economic war,' he said, 'we will not allow a single drop of oil to pass through the Persian Gulf,' and he threatened the alternative routes Gulf states use to export around Hormuz.
Iran granted a number of Iraqi oil tankers permission to transit the Strait of Hormuz, IRNA said, describing it as one of Baghdad's main requests during parliament speaker Ghalibaf's visit to Iraq. Neither government said how many ships passed or on what terms.
The World Bank projected Lebanon's real GDP will shrink 6.4 percent in 2026, 'reflecting the collapse in tourism, weaker consumption, disrupted supply chains, heightened insecurity, and prolonged displacement,' with inflation rising to 17.5 percent.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi and Iran's Abbas Araghchi discussed by phone 'ways to create favorable conditions for resuming dialogue and negotiations' and navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, Oman's news agency said, after the Iran-Oman route talks had gone quiet. Iran's trade promotion body said it had finalized a preferential trade agreement with Oman, which Oman had not confirmed.
Treasury designated 10 people, including Turkish businessman Yunus Alper Yilmaz, in a network that uses couriers on commercial flights between Lebanon, Turkey, the UAE and Iran to move up to hundreds of millions of dollars to Hezbollah outside the banking system. It also redesignated Hezbollah as acting for the Iranian regime under the command of the IRGC-Qods Force, which a State Department official said shows it is 'not a stand-alone operation.'
CENTCOM said the USS George Washington carrier strike group was operating in the Middle East 'after arriving in the CENTCOM theater yesterday,' to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln after its nearly nine-month deployment. A U.S. official said later that day the Lincoln had begun heading home.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote that 'the so-called Economic D-Day is a diversion from America's own crisis' of debt, and that 'doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat.' The foreign ministry called the threat 'the other side of the coin of war' and said those who order or implement the measures 'are liable to prosecution and punishment.'
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. would begin 'the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY,' an 'economic D-Day,' and that any country letting its banks, businesses, airports or government entities give Iran 'any type of lifeline' would face 'TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,' naming oil smuggling, swap lines, exchange houses, ship registries and front companies. He gave no details. Earlier that day he said the naval blockade had been 'extremely effective.'
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf began a three-day visit to Iraq with a parliamentary delegation, praising Iran-backed militias as 'the resistance in Iraq' and a 'key component of the country's national power.' Iraq's parliament speaker said Baghdad was asking Iran to give Iraqi oil exports special status through the Strait of Hormuz.
The UAE foreign ministry said 'all trade, commercial exchanges, and financial transactions with Iran have been halted until further notice' in light of regional escalations, hours after it accused Iran of firing two ballistic missiles at Gulf shipping. Iran denied firing the missiles.
Trump wrote that 'there are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled' with Iran, that the naval blockade 'remains in full force and effect,' that the strait 'is open and operating' and that all mines had been removed. The day before he had told Fox News there was a backchannel with the IRGC, and on Tuesday he also posted a map labeling the strait 'New US Territory.'
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a speech on state television that 'the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until the American commitments stipulated in the memorandum of understanding are implemented,' listing the release of frozen assets, lifting of oil and gas sanctions, and an end to the U.S. naval blockade and military threats.
Trump told Fox News' Trey Yingst, 'If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s--- out of them,' hours after Iran said it had agreed a transit route map with Oman. Later in the Oval Office he said Oman had not 'behaved very well' but the U.S. would 'handle them very easily'; he had made a similar threat against Oman in May.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said 'an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route' with Oman and that the two were finalizing a joint statement, blaming 'malevolent parties' for delays. Iran discussed the strait the same day with China, where deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi met Vice Foreign Minister Miao Deyu, and with Turkey in a call between Abbas Araghchi and Hakan Fidan.
Trump wrote that he had ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to 'substantially reduce' the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises with South Korea, calling them costly and hostile toward North Korea, and added that South Korea had said 'No thanks!' when he asked it to join 'the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.' He called the two issues 'somewhat unrelated.'
Iraq's Kurdistan counterterrorism service said drones launched from the Iranian border targeted Prime Minister Masrour Barzani's office and the home of the head of the Parastin intelligence agency, with no casualties. Barzani said the attacks were Iranian and a 'serious escalation'; Iran's foreign ministry called the incident 'highly suspicious' and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned of 'false-flag ploys.'
Army chief Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami said at a ceremony in Tehran that anyone who kills or captures and hands over 'an invading American military personnel' will receive the equivalent of $30,000, or 5 billion tomans, doubled if the act is carried out by a woman. He also said U.S. forces will not be allowed back into the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman or the Strait of Hormuz, calling control of the strait a 'sacred' lever for ending the war.
Gen. Mohammad Bagherzadeh, who leads the Iranian armed forces' missing-persons committee, wrote to the Red Cross that Qatari forces captured three Iranian pilots, whom he named, after two Su-24 bombers were downed attacking the U.S. base at Al Udeid in March. Qatar's foreign ministry 'categorically' denied detaining them, said its search teams recovered remains and coordinated handing over one pilot's body, and said Iran never answered an April invitation to be briefed.
Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi wrote that the strait 'cannot be seized by tweet, nor by aircraft carrier, nor by issuing an order, nor by an election speech,' that it 'has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian,' and that it 'will only be closed and opened under Iran's command.' Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei called Trump's remark 'ravings.'
At a rally in Nassau County, New York, Trump said: 'After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,' and that 'no ships get through unless we want them to.' On gasoline, which averaged $4.07 a gallon, he said 'You're at $4. It's okay... I'll never apologize.'
UKMTO said an unknown projectile hit the hull of a bulk carrier in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday; the crew were reported safe, with no damage assessment and the environmental impact unknown. UKMTO said it had received 56 reports of damage to vessels in and near the strait since the war began on Feb. 28.
Trump told Fox News the United States would hit Iran hard economically. The night before, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Newsmax to 'watch this space for more announcements coming next week' and promised 'economic isolation like the world has never seen before' combined with the naval blockade.
Asked at Joint Base Andrews whether the carrier's deployment had lasted too long, Trump said 'Not nearly long enough' and that the ship was about to be replaced. A day earlier CENTCOM called reports that seven sailors died in a brawl aboard 'false,' saying no one aboard had died and a sailor who fell overboard on Aug. 3 was recovered; CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper visited the crew on Aug. 15.