US plans new bank sanctions to increase economic pressure on Iran

The Trump administration will take measures to put another bank under sanctions this week as it expands efforts to isolate Iran financially, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Associated Press.

Bessent would not identify the bank, which follows earlier rounds of US Initiatives designed to cut Iran off from international financing channels and transactions that the US Administration says contribute to Tehran.

“This is going to be financial violence if we have to,” Bessent said in a Sunday AP interview. “We are showing people that we know who you are, you know who you are, and this has got to stop.”

Bessent said Treasury was currently focused on banks and more severe measures like shutting financial institutions out of the dollar-based system could be planned and carried out weekly.

Last week, the Trump administration moved to shut the Emirati branches of Banque Misr (Egypt’s second-biggest bank) out of the US Financial system for doing business with Iran. Dozens of individuals and entities have been blacklisted as part of a new Operation Economic Outcast campaign.

Bessent is scheduled to meet with economic leaders from leading world countries to consult on Iran, among other pressing issues, at the G20 meetings in Asheville, North Carolina.