Sanctions

Iran Is Turning America's Sanctions Playbook Against It

The U.S. Treasury is trying to fight the kind of trade embargo that it usually imposes on other countries.

Matthew Petti | 5.29.2026 9:42 AM

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(Kyodonews/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom/Andrew Leyden/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

The U.S. government has made it illegal to pay Iran a toll to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. On Thursday, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority, forbidding anyone who deals in U.S. dollars from doing business with the Iranian government body collecting the payments.

"The U.S. Treasury will aggressively target any actors involved—directly or indirectly—in facilitating tolls for the Strait and any willing partners will be penalized," Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent declared. "All nations should reject outright any efforts by Iran to disrupt the free flow of commerce."

It's easy to miss it, but this action is a dramatic and strange inversion of Washington's economic strategy. OFAC's usual job is to stop the free flow of commerce by enforcing trade embargoes and financial sanctions on foreign enemies. The Trump administration in........

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