The Economic D-Day which US President Donald Trump had floated as a threat against Iran has started finding its loyal echoes in his cabinet members' rhetoric too. The calculation that once US imposes such sanctions on countries that trade with Iran, as per the D-Day theory, would result in strangulating Iran itself which would in turn spell economic doom of that country.
But of late observers going deeper into the economic war strategy, have been pointing out that the sanctions war with Iran has one major hurdle to overcome: antagonising China, if not colliding with it. The reason is that China is the leading trading partner, especially ever since the embargo forced many of Iran's oil buyers to play ball on one end or avoid the risk of retaliation on the other. And as per industry estimates, 90 per cent of Iran's oil is destined for China. That also means that the repercussions of the trade sanctions will reverberate across the economies of other major countries too.
It is in this backdrop that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's threat to attack Iran with an "economic D-Day" also runs the risk of clashing with China economically.
On the other end, China has been generally offering a safe resistance against US tariff wars which again Washington has chosen more to brag about than to impose and penalise China. As such, the Chinese attitude will not be one of outright confrontation on the spur of sanctions on Iran's trading partners, but China is highly unlikely to watch idly the US running roughshod over the Middle East's oil business.
On its part, the US will also choose to avoid a direct hostility with China on the economic front, which in turn will make the US economic D-Day a non-starter.
On Monday, Bessent promised an "economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe" as President Donald Trump tries to wind down his unpopular war in the Middle East.
Bessent in a high-profile press conference on Monday declared dozens of new sanctions on firms, individuals and vessels, and that included a series of secondary sanctions against firms and countries doing business with Iran.
Regardless of the impact of the economic sanctions regime, what it implicitly admits is that the military objectives of the US administration have to be shelved now for using the economic weapon.
Since Trump and Chinese premier Xi Jiping are scheduled to meet in September, any fracture in relations is sure to upend Trump's motives in the Middle East. And hence Bessent said, as reported by Bloomberg, "no one is above the reach of US sanctions" but that he preferred "quiet diplomacy," adding "we're not going to name names."