The United States, having failed to squeeze Iran into submission by military means, is now trying to achieve this objective through economic means.

Its change in emphasis was underscored by three events in the past few days.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that the United States does not plan to launch new offensive strikes against Iran, though he did not rule out military action should Iran initiate a fresh round of  hostilities.

In other sign that Washington has virtually ruled out a renewal of fighting, the US State Department indicated that American diplomats who were withdrawn from the Middle East prior to the outbreak of the US-Israel-Iran war on February 28 will return to their posts in countries such as Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

And in a third indicator of the US shift, US President Donald Trump said he intended to launch a concerted campaign of “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale” directed at Iran. He warned that any country caught assisting Iran would face “tremendous economic consequences.”

Currently, Iran’s largest trading partners are China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which last week made it known that it would stop all commercial relations with Iran.

In the wake of Trump’s comments, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent telegraphed the Trump administration’s intention to impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran. On August 24, he made it official. Operation Economic Outcast, he said, is aimed at suffocating the Iranian economy.

Bessent said that more than 60 entities, individuals and institutions around the world that enable Iran to obtain illicit nuclear and missile technology, conduct cyber operations, and generate oil revenue have been sanctioned. In particular, he noted, Iran’s  digital assets and aviation, shipping and gold industries will be targeted.

Disclosing that Washington will soon take additional steps to hammer Iran, he added that Operation Economic Outcast “will gather force with every day.”

In short, the United States will block every potential source of revenue that funds the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which protects it and assists Iran’s proxies in the Middle East.

The Trump administration announced these measures as the U.S. continues to impose a naval blockade against Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and as........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)