US Treasury Secretary Announces Additional Sanctions on Banks Trading With Iran, Says 'China Is on the Table'

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on the 30th local time that additional banks trading with Iran will be sanctioned this week.

Speaking in an interview with the Associated Press ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers meeting in North Carolina, Secretary Bessent made the remarks and warned, "If necessary, this will be financial violence."

As a signal of its "maximum economic isolation" campaign targeting Iran, the U.S. Treasury Department designated five branches of Egypt's state-owned Banque Misr in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), as "primary money laundering concerns" on the 28th.

This decision was made because these branches processed approximately $1.8 billion (approx. 2.4 trillion KRW) in illicit funds from 2024 to recently for front companies linked to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Once the measures are finalized following a 30-day public comment period, Banque Misr's UAE branches will be cut off from access to the U.S. financial system.

Addressing criticism that China, the main importer of Iranian crude oil, was omitted from the latest U.S. sanctions against Iran, Secretary Bessent told the AP that he would speak with Chinese officials at the G20 meeting, adding, "All options are on the table."

Dismissing the view that the U.S. government is reluctant to confront China as "a completely false narrative created by the media," he asserted that the U.S. and China share common ground on the need to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

The AP reported, "The fact that the administration took a phased approach rather than immediately imposing direct sanctions on Banque Misr suggests it may still be cautious about penalizing major trading partners that deal with Iran, such as China and India."

This refers to the sequential approach chosen by the U.S. Treasury Department: instead of placing Banque Misr on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list for a complete block, it first proposed rules to cut off its UAE branches from the U.S. financial network.

(Photo: Getty Images)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.