US President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to hit Iran hard economically, a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would impose measures on Tehran that have “never been seen” as soon as next week.
Recent measures have targeted Iran’s shadow oil fleet; shipping insurers; entities and people enabling Iran’s acquisition of weapons; and digital exchanges, freezing an estimated $500 billion in Iran-linked cryptocurrency.
Independent refiners absorb much of this trade, exposing them to so-called secondary measures that penalise entities helping a primary sanctions target. Treasury recently issued sanctions against firms that are springing up to facilitate Iran’s trading of oil revenue for imports. Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs on goods from countries that do business with Iran, although the Supreme Court struck down the legal basis for such taxes.
China buys more than 80 per cent of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler.
But such measures amount to a “whack-a-mole” approach that has not altered Iran’s behavior, said Brett Erickson, managing principal of Obsidian Risk Advisors, noting that Tehran simply creates new entities to replace them.
