"Economic Bullying Operation"… "Bluffing No One Believes"

[Anchor]

The United States has declared an operation to economically isolate Iran from the international community. With peace negotiations stalled, the move aims to completely cut off Iran's financial lifelines and force it to yield. Iran responded with counter-sanctions in the Strait of Hormuz.

Reporting from Washington, here is correspondent Lee Hanseok.

[Reporter]

The "economic bullying operation" unveiled by the U.S. Department of the Treasury targets countries that trade with Iran.

The Treasury announced that it will impose powerful "secondary sanctions," including tariffs, on companies and nations engaging in transactions with Iran across five sectors: cryptocurrency, gold, technology, aviation, and shipping.

This expands the existing economic sanctions against Iran from seven sectors, which included construction, mining, crude oil, and petrochemicals, to a total of 12.

At the same time, the U.S. placed over 60 entities, individuals, and vessels worldwide on its sanctions list to dismantle Iran's oil smuggling and sanctions-evasion networks, which serve as its core sources of funding.

This is interpreted as an effort to completely choke off Iran's financial lifeline by blocking its access to the U.S. dollar-based payment system.

[Scott Bessent / U.S. Treasury Secretary: Iran is now facing a very clear choice between two paths: total international isolation and barely maintaining survival, or returning to normalcy by gaining the opportunity to rejoin the global economy.]

Iran expressed confidence, stating that the U.S. cannot sever its economic arteries.

[Seyed Ali Madanizadeh / Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs: The government has established a two-year plan and is fully prepared for these developments, having already prepared for them.]

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked the economic bullying operation as a bluff that even Americans do not believe.

Iran placed 45 oil tankers on a blacklist, including five vessels owned by South Korea's Sinokor Merchant Marine, warning that it could impose fines or seize cargo.

Meanwhile, Yemen's Houthi rebels struck a Saudi oil tanker with a missile in the Red Sea, and an oil tanker was attacked near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated that President Trump is calling world leaders to ask them to cut off exchanges with the Iranian regime, but U.S. media outlets predict that the sanctions will remain empty talk unless they prompt a change in stance from China, Iran's largest trading partner.

(Reported by Oh Jung-shik | Video edited by Choi Hye-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.