Four days ago, Sec. Treasury Scott Bessent held a press conference to announce that he would be going after the funding mechanisms that the Iranian Republic is still using to try to stay afloat.
The Sec. Treas. laid out in no uncertain terms that this would be a merciless economic 'onslaught' against the regime's remaining financial network that would not end until 'Tehran stood alone.' And Bessent made it quite clear that those who offered aid to the mullahs would share in their fate as their economies came crashing down in sync.
In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections… pic.twitter.com/1fLyobUucu
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) August 24, 2026.
...an economic onslaught against Iran’s financial connections around the globe. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.
President Trump has taken action that his predecessors have long deferred. Under his leadership, America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it. Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to Tehran should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime.
The Treasury Department made its first move today, against branches of a United Arab Emirates bank based in Egypt. The move put the financial world on edge, wondering if Chinese banks were next.
The Treasury Department is moving to sever an Egyptian bank’s United Arab Emirates branches from the US financial system as part of efforts to pressure Iran into ending the war in the Middle East.
On Friday, Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a measure revoking Banque Misr’s UAE correspondent banking access to US financial institutions, according to a statement posted on Treasury’s website on Friday morning. Banque Misr is Egypt’s second-largest bank.
...In a statement on Friday, Egypt’s central bank said it was in touch with the US about the measures and that the move was only aimed at the Banque Misr’s branch in the UAE. It added that “none of these measures” extend to any other financial institutions in the Egyptian banking sector, including Banque Misr’s domestic branches in Egypt and foreign branches in other countries.
After Bessent’s announcement on Monday, markets and foreign governments were waiting to see if the US would sanction a Chinese bank, since China buys more than 90% of Iran’s oil and has put out defiant statements in the wake of the new US sanctions push.
While Treasury called Banque Misr a “key financial lifeline” for the regime because it allegedly processed around $1.8 billion for 103 companies that could potentially be part of Iranian shadow banking networks, the move struck some analysts as underwhelming.
While some financial analysts felt it was 'underwhelming,' most Middle East watchers thought the message sent was significant. First, because sustaining Iran is almost all the business that this bank does.
A ~USD 6 billion UAE bank with only three U.S. correspondent lines is moving roughly a third of its balance-sheet-equivalent per year in suspected Iranian shadow-banking flows; cutting those three lines is a low-cost, high-impact way to sever an Iranian access node to the USD. https://t.co/bxobbLYylZ
— Miad Maleki (@miadmaleki) August 28, 2026
Second, it's also owned by the Egyptians, who will now have received a clear message that, if they had any part in this, they've been found out and had best clean up their act, STAT.
If by some chance you don't know what Banque Misr UAE is:
— BelannF (@BelannF) August 28, 2026
Banque Misr UAE is a branch of Banque Misr, one of Egypt's oldest and largest state-owned banks, founded in 1920. It is owned by the Arab Republic of Egypt and operates with a focus on serving the Egyptian community in… https://t.co/pTmc898du6
...and operates with a focus on serving the Egyptian community in the UAE.
Apparently we now have a very savvy Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who means business. These different country and their entities will stop helping Iran recover or else.
GREAT JOB Secretary Bessent.
Third was the clear signal to China, the worst offender in sustaining the regime and the most pugnaciously defiant in doing so, that the U.S. is slowly but surely coming for them.
Bessent is targeting the remaining branches of the Iranian state bank, Bank Melli, and its officers as well.
Iran's Bank Melli was sanctioned by the @USTreasury for support to terrorism in 2018, yet it still operates branches around the globe. @SecScottBessent just said all these branches must be shut down.
— Miad Maleki (@miadmaleki) August 24, 2026
Here are where Bank Melli has branches.
1. UAE — 7 (Dubai ×2, Sharjah, Ras Al… pic.twitter.com/j1vHQ6buHC
1. UAE — 7 (Dubai ×2, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain)
2. Iraq — 3 (Baghdad, Najaf, Basra)
3. Oman — 1 (Muscat)
4. Azerbaijan — 1 (Baku)
5. Germany — 1 (Hamburg)
6. France — 1 (Paris)
Subsidiary / joint-venture banks (4 jurisdictions)
7. United Kingdom — Melli Bank plc (London)
8. Hong Kong — Melli Bank plc branch
9. Russia — Mir Business Bank (Moscow, Kazan, Astrakhan)
10. Afghanistan — Arian Bank (Kabul; JV with Bank Saderat, status unverified)
A Treasury statement makes plain where the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is starting with regard to Bank Melli. They're sanctioning the Dubai branch general manager and a Hong Kong-based trading company they are accusing of facilitating Iranian money laundering.
...OFAC is taking additional action against Bank Melli and Iran’s shadow banking network. Iranian national Reza Mohammad Taeedi serves as the general manager of Bank Melli’s Dubai Branch. Bank Melli has facilitated billions of dollars’ worth of transactions through accounts controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF). It has allowed the IRGC-QF and its parent organization, the IRGC, to move funds inside and outside of Iran. The IRGC-QF’s accounts at Bank Melli have also been used to fund Iranian-aligned proxies and partners, including in Iraq.
Hong Kong-based Kameng Trading Limited has aided sanctioned Iranian persons in accessing the international financial system. Sanctioned Iranian exchange house Pedram Pirouzan Exchange House, also known as Opal Exchange, has used Kameng Trading Limited to launder money for Iran. Pedram Pirouzan Exchange House was designated pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the financial sector of the Iranian economy.
Reza Mohammad Taeedi is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13224, as amended, a counterterrorism authority, for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, Bank Melli. OFAC is designating Kameng Trading Limited pursuant to E.O. 13902 for operating in the financial sector of the Iranian economy.
The regime desperately needs the hard currency these institutions move for it, and choking it off one twist of the rope at a time may seem like a small thing. But these are not easily replaceable conduits for cash, and Tehran will be hard-pressed to find an alternative source of money to fund any portion of what they lose at each turn, let alone replace it entirely.
First they got both the oil revenues and fuel cut off, and now?
This is brutal turn-of-the-screw pressure, and so well done.
Oh, I like it.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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