Donald Trump escalates pressure on Iran with new sanctions and blockade

The White House is squeezing Iran from every angle. President Donald Trump has paired a reinstated naval blockade of Iranian ports with sweeping new sanctions targeting Tehran’s financial networks, oil smuggling operations, and regional allies, in what amounts to the most aggressive US economic and military pressure campaign against Iran in decades. Trump framed the effort in characteristically modest terms on Truth Social, calling it the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY.” The goal: force Iran into a deal that ends the ongoing conflict between the two nations, with control of the Strait of Hormuz sitting at the center of the negotiations. What the pressure campaign looks like The sanctions side of this operation has been building since mid-July 2026. The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctioned over 200 targets linked to the network of Iranian businessman Mohammed Hossein Shamkhani, focusing on entities involved in oil smuggling and financial operations that fund Tehran’s war effort. On August 20, the administration added Hezbollah to the target list with what the Treasury described as sanctions “never before seen” against the Ir...