The United States on Thursday (August 20, 2026) warned allies and China to join President Donald Trump ’s new campaign to isolate the Iranian economy, vowing that Washington would “collapse this regime” in Tehran.
Neither Mr. Trump nor his treasury chief has set out the measures they are planning against Iran. Asked whether the United States would pressure China, Mr.
Bessent said he would give more details during a press conference on Monday (August 24, 2026). Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit the White House on September 24.
Iran branded the U.S. threats as “economic terrorism” and said they would fail. Bessent said that “many conversations are best to have in private” but called on Beijing “to get with the program. But the U.S. treasury boss said the economic plan meant the United States is less likely to have to return to heavy military operations against Iran. “If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart, but I will emphasise that is for now,” Mr. Bessent said. “The so-called ‘Economic D-Day’ is a diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X.
