World Mostly Shrugs Off Bessent’s ‘D-Day’ Iran Sanctions Threat

(Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent began the week vowing an "economic onslaught" against Iran and its trading partners in a fresh bid to end the war. By the week's end, countries with ties to Tehran had so far shrugged off the threat and analysts were left underwhelmed by the US actions.

China, which buys 90% of Iran's oil, issued a defiant warning to Washington rather than back down. Iranian bank branches remained open in Dubai. At one Bank Melli branch in Abu Dhabi, staff were busy typing away and one employee explained that they were still open for business.

Commercial flights also continued between Iran and Turkey as well as Iran and the United Arab Emirates, which had promised last week to sever all trade and financial transactions with Tehran. Routes flying to Thailand and Azerbaijan, as well as multiple destinations in both Russia and China, remained unaffected.

As the week came to a close, the US announced plans to sanction the UAE-based branches of Egypt's Banque Misr. That fell well below expectations after Bessent's warning that the world would see "a major announcement of a financial institution being sanctioned by the end of this week."

"As the war passes the six-month mark, the public actions taken by the Treasury Department this week do not match the hype," said Alex Zerden, a former US Treasury official and founder of Capitol Peak Strategies.

"Operation Economic Outcast is a continuation of 47 years of restrictive economic measures against Iran but does not provide a clearer theory of economic or military victory in this current campaign," Zerden said.

The Treasury Department didn't respond to a request for comment on Friday.

GLOBAL REACT: Trump's Iran 'D-Day' Hasn't Stormed Beaches

Bessent's threats — and the collective global shrug so far — underscore the Trump administration's main conundrum as it seeks to sanction Iran into meeting its demands. Any effective sanctions campaign would need to hit China, a move that risks sparking retaliation and potentially massive global economic fallout. Anything less would add to Iran's economic pain but not enough to budge its strategic calculus.

US credibility is also at stake. Bessent repeatedly compared the US response to the historic 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy, France — a coordinated land and air invasion aimed at toppling the Nazi regime. But the US acted unilaterally with its latest move, pressuring other countries rather than working with them, and Bessent openly acknowledged that going too fast and too hard risked tanking the global financial system.