00:00Almost six months into a conflict, the U.S. has struggled to resolve.
00:03Treasury Secretary Scott Bassett unveiled expense sanctions against Iran on Monday,
00:08but stopped short of actually imposing penalties.
00:11He said countries that continue trading with Iran risked being forced out of the dollar-based financial system,
00:17but he declined to give a timeline or identify which countries may be targeted,
00:21saying he would give them time to comply with the new directive.
00:26Every country, every entity should know that they should be prepared to face U.S. sanctions,
00:33and no one is above this.
00:38We are going to hold everyone accountable, and this is economic asphyxiation of this regime.
00:47Sounds like a gangster telling the world that international law means nothing to them.
00:51Six months into war with Iran, countless statements about winning it,
00:56and yet the U.S. still needs further economic sanctions on Iran.
00:59What Treasury Secretary Scott Bassett announced today was a new campaign to increase pressure on Iran
01:07by essentially warning U.S. allies that they need to cut their business ties to Iran
01:15or that they would face secondary sanctions themselves.
01:20He added that for established companies or banks,
01:23being cut off from U.S. dollar transactions can be viewed as kind of a death sentence.
01:28What he's threatening is that they will be hit with secondary sanctions for failing to comply with the new sanctions
01:38regime.
01:40And what that would mean would be that entities that are sort of caught still transacting business with Iran
01:47would be put on the Treasury Black List, the specially designated nationals list,
01:53which is something that is meant to cut you off from dollar transactions.
02:03For established companies, established banks, that can be viewed as kind of a death sentence.
02:11If you're trying to do business internationally, you kind of have to be able to handle dollar transactions,
02:17and if you can't do that, then you're going to have a hard time sort of staying in business.
02:23Experts say Washington is wary of Chinese retaliation for any sanctions on its banks ahead of expected talks
02:30next month between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping
02:34with any curbs on China's exports of critical minerals, especially sensitive.
02:38This announcement did not contain any real mention of Chinese financial institutions.
02:46So it's unclear sort of how willing the administration is to go there,
02:52especially with President Trump and President Xi Jinping planning another summit meeting towards the end of September.
03:03There's a very delicate trade truce between the U.S. and China,
03:07and taking action against a major Chinese bank that would cut them off from the international financial system
03:15would be pretty detrimental to that relationship and could cause some serious problems.
03:23So far, only UAE eager to participate in this journey.
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