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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / World Mostly Shrugs Off Bessent’s ‘D-Day’ Iran Sanctions

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

August 30, 2026 at 3:15 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“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 U.S. actions,” Bloomberg reports.

“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.”

“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.”

MS NOW: The Iran war is showing the costs of Trump’s strongman economics.

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, White House

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About Political Wire

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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