New U.S. Economic Pressure on Iran: Maximum Pressure or Psychological Warfare?
WANA (Aug 24) – A senior Iranian intelligence source described the Trump administration’s new economic pressure campaign against Iran as part of a media and psychological operation aimed at increasing pressure on the Iranian people, stressing that the plan would not represent any new action on the ground despite the publicity surrounding it.
The senior intelligence source said the economic pressure plan that Trump is expected to unveil is based on a strategy developed by his media team as part of a campaign to increase psychological pressure on the Iranian people.
According to the source, the United States has already taken virtually every measure at its disposal to exert economic pressure on Iran, ranging from primary and secondary sanctions to maritime pressure, and the new plan would not provide Washington with a fundamentally different or decisive tool.
Referring to Trump’s previous media campaigns and statements, including remarks about targeting infrastructure and bridges and “liberating the Strait of Hormuz,” the source said experience had shown that such statements largely served as psychological operations and did not necessarily translate into specific action on the ground.
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The source added that such media operations are usually launched around the reopening of financial markets with the aim of influencing energy prices and creating psychological pressure. According to him, once energy prices are brought under control, these campaigns typically end with Trump saying that he is “giving Iran time,” that regional countries have intervened as mediators, or that the United States has achieved its objectives. The issue of negotiations with Iran is then raised again in media outlets close to Trump.
Against this backdrop, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined Washington’s new plan to intensify economic pressure on Iran at a press conference on Monday afternoon, with his remarks indicating that the initiative bears significant similarities to the “maximum pressure” policy pursued during Trump’s first administration.
Bessent said: “Every country has a timeline to stop its activities, and if countries do not take the necessary steps, we will take unilateral action through our authorities.”
The U.S. Treasury secretary also said: “We have warned countries that facilitate the smuggling of Iranian oil and allow their banks to be used for the benefit of the Iranian regime.”
He added that countries would be given a specific deadline to halt activities identified by the U.S. Treasury Department, including the operations of Iranian bank branches abroad. Bessent also warned that any entity facilitating money-laundering activities on behalf of Iran would be excluded from the U.S. dollar-based financial system.
A currency dealer counts U.S. dollars in the Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran, August 17, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)
The U.S. Treasury Department has also announced that sanctions will be imposed on more than 60 organizations, individuals and entities around the world, while Washington intends to target Iran’s financial resources and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The approach echoes the policy adopted by Trump’s first administration after the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, which relied heavily on secondary sanctions against countries and companies doing business with Iran.
In response to the remarks, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf described U.S. threats of tougher sanctions as “empty bluster.”
In a post on his X account, Ghalibaf wrote: “The Americans know that no one believes their empty bluster; the United States is not in an economic position to further restrict its relations with other countries.”
He added: “Iran’s trading partners have told us, both through the media and by sending messages, that they attach no significance whatsoever to these statements.”
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The senior Iranian intelligence source also described the new U.S. economic pressure plan, coinciding with the reopening of financial markets and the presence of a Pakistani mediator in Iran, as another example of the Trump administration’s media and psychological operations, saying it would not bring about any new development on the ground.
According to the source, Trump has consistently sought to compensate through media-driven psychological operations for what the source described as his difficulties on the battlefield, using such campaigns to reinforce messages being conveyed behind the scenes.
From this perspective, the new U.S. sanctions plan is being viewed less as evidence of a new instrument for pressuring Iran and more as a continuation of the same maximum-pressure policy, this time accompanied by a strong publicity campaign.
