Middle East updates: Trump warns 'economic consequences' for nations helping Iran

This blog is now closed. The United States Treasury recently imposed sanctions on ten individuals it suspects of involvement in smuggling networks supporting Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. The Treasury highlighted Hezbollah's use of oil smuggling, illicit shipping, commodity sales, and cash smuggling to raise and transfer funds across the region.

Among those targeted was a Turkish businessman accused of utilizing Turkey-based exchange houses to transfer cash between various countries in the region and Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. Washington also upgraded Hezbollah's status to a designated terrorist organization, citing its loyalty to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) - specifically the Quds Force, which handles the group's overseas activities.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed confidence that economic pressure would bring about regime change in Iran, stating that this would be the largest coordinated economic isolation in history. He emphasized that large-scale military operations would likely be unnecessary if maximum economic pressure is applied. Iran's Foreign Ministry strongly denounced the new US economic and trade sanctions, calling them "economic terrorism" and crimes against humanity.

The ministry argued that such measures will harm ordinary Iranians, describing the sanctions and economic pressure as the "other side of the coin of war and military aggression."