United States President Donald Trump has suggested Washington could impose economic sanctions on Chinese banks that conduct business with Iran.
Responding to reporters who asked why the American administration was not placing restrictions on lenders in China, Trump indicated that potential measures against those financial institutions remain on the table.
According to Russian state news agency TASS, Trump asked journalists who had said he was not taking such action, adding that he was under no obligation to publicly announce every regulatory step in advance.
United States secondary sanctions give Washington the authority to cut foreign financial institutions off from the global US dollar clearing system. Federal authorities routinely use these powers to pressure overseas lenders that maintain commercial relationships with sanctioned foreign governments.
New sanctions target Iranian networks
The president made his remarks shortly after United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced a new suite of punitive measures aimed at Iranian commercial networks. The Department of the Treasury administers economic penalties through its enforcement divisions to isolate targeted regimes from international commerce.
The newest sanctions package specifically targets 48 legal entities, 24 individuals, and six oil tankers involved in transporting petroleum for the Islamic Republic.
Before the Treasury announced the latest restrictions, Trump stated that the United States had launched a new crushing economic campaign designed to weaken the Iranian government.
Claims of military and economic ruin
Describing the current military and economic standing of Iran, the American president claimed that the nation's naval fleet had been completely destroyed and its air force thoroughly defeated.
Trump further asserted that defense manufacturing facilities across the country had been reduced to ruins, crippling Iran's industrial capacity.
He noted that the Iranian rial and national currency reserves had undergone severe devaluation under the weight of foreign restrictions, leaving the country hanging by a thread.
China is Iran's primary trading partner and major buyer of its energy exports, with regional financial institutions handling payments for crude oil shipments. Applying regulatory pressure to Chinese lenders would represent a significant escalation in American efforts to restrict foreign capital flows into Tehran.
