Reviewing the U.S. economic pressure plan" (or "Examining the U.S. economic pressure scheme")

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. Monday, 2 Shahrivar 1405, August 24, 2026. America's strategy, which reportedly will remain its main focus until November and the US elections, has three pillars. The first is to try to take the Strait of Hormuz as a lever away from Iran by opening a passage south of the strait and moving oil through it. America says this has reached 10 million barrels a day, while news agencies put it at five to six million barrels a day. That is how America is getting it through. The second

0:57 is continuing the naval blockade of Iran, and the third is increasing economic pressure. Of course, if a clash breaks out in the meantime and Iran, as some people say it will, attacks American bases and the countries of the region, America will respond with the force it has and retaliate severely. Under this strategy, the third part, increasing economic pressure, had been loudly trailed a few days ago: America was said to have a major plan to increase economic pressure on Iran.

1:52 Mr. Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, gave a detailed interview today to explain this plan. It had been said earlier that it would be announced on Monday. The gist of what he said is that from now on, anyone who goes along with Iran will be cut off from the dollar, and that they will put pressure on five arteries of Iran's economy. These include Iran's digital assets; it is said that Iran holds several billion dollars in cryptocurrency and digital currency assets. Technology: they will put pressure on technologies and technical matters so that Iran cannot

2:46 use them. Gold, which serves as an escape route for getting around sanctions, so they will control gold transfers. Aviation, meaning airports, flights and so on. And shipping, ports and maritime links. How the pressure on these five arteries of the economy will work in detail, and how they will carry it out, is not clear. Mr. Bessent made some points, and in the course of his remarks he also said that the branches of Bank Melli Iran outside Iran must be shut down, as must other institutions that launder money for Iran, and

3:40 matters of that kind. Some of what Mr. Bessent said was not new; the Americans have said it before. But this idea of pressure on five arteries can be called something new. In any case, practice will show how serious this approach is, how free America's hand will be, and how far it can actually implement it. What is certain is that as a first step they put pressure on Dubai, even before today's announcement, and Dubai has reportedly promised to cut all of its trade ties with Iran within a month. That, of course, puts very heavy pressure

4:36 on Iran. Many believe that the dollar's sudden jump from the 190,000-toman range to the 200,000-toman range, a surge over several days, was because of Dubai. Today, for a few hours, the dollar reached 204,000 tomans on Iran's open currency market, though it later came down. In any case, the dollar is fluctuating above 200,000 tomans. On the other side, Mr. Ali Madanizadeh, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance in Mr. Pezeshkian's cabinet, said in a television interview that the Americans have done this kind of thing before, that there have been 47 years

5:31 of sanctions, things others had also said. He stressed that what Mr. Bessent described is not so simple and that America cannot implement it. He also said that two countries refused right at the outset and will not carry out America's demands. He did not name them, but many believe they are China and Russia. There was also a report that China's foreign minister said China will not join these sanctions and these American demands. In any event, what is certain is that the most important countries in

6:23 the current flow of Iran's economy are Dubai, one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates and the most important of them, and China. More than 90% of Iran's exports of oil, gas, petroleum products and other goods go to China, and more than 70% of the country's purchases also come from China. There are small banks in China, some of them set up by the Islamic Republic itself, that work only in yuan. They do no business outside China, and they don't deal in dollars. These institutions handle the banking for Iran's oil sales to China's small so-called teapot refineries. They keep the yuan right there, and purchases from

7:14 China also go through these banks. They pay the Chinese seller in that same yuan, and the goods come from China. So for the American plan to succeed, these two countries have to cooperate with it. The Emirates has apparently begun and has given its promise; we'll have to see what it does in practice. As for China, if Mr. Madanizadeh meant China and Russia, it must be said that China rejected America right at the outset. Of course, we have to see whether America, especially with talks between the two presidents coming up, is willing to strike a give-and-take deal with China and grant it concessions in exchange for China's cooperation in this economic blockade,

8:13 and, in short, what levers it can set in motion. There was also a report, which I mentioned in the previous program, that during Mr. Ghalibaf's trip to Iraq there was talk of Iraq, without America being able to control it, taking Iranian oil and processing it in its refineries, which consume more than one to one and a half million barrels a day, then exporting its own oil in its place and paying Iran the money, minus a commission, of course. Iran did the reverse of this, for a percentage, for Iraq during the sanctions on Saddam Hussein. In any case, these escape routes are also part of the picture.

9:10 Now, the bill or law that has become known as the "Infiltration Law", whose general outline was announced in the Majlis as approved. It is a bizarre law that, on the pretext of the war and in this atmosphere, increases security pressure and repression on people in every sector. It controls even academic exchanges, interviews by journalists and people in culture, cinema and theater, let alone news and so on. In a word, it can be called a bill to turn the country into North Korea. After Mr. Majid Ansari, the Pezeshkian government's Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said that the government had informed

10:06 the Majlis that this bill must not be passed and should be withdrawn, Mr. Aref, Mr. Pezeshkian's First Vice President, also stressed today that Mr. Ghalibaf has promised the government that he will not let this law pass and will withdraw it. In any case, we have to see what happens in the tug-of-war between the factions in the Majlis, and then there is the weight of the Leader's office. When Khamenei was alive, he would intervene at such moments behind the scenes; if he wanted a law like this passed, he would have it put on the agenda, tell the Majlis, and it would be passed. But right now we don't even know whether this Mr.

11:03 Mojtaba is alive or dead, or what structure and position the Leader's office has, or whether it can influence this in the Majlis. In any case, this is a law that must not be passed, because it exploits the wartime atmosphere to press the regime's boot down even harder on the people's throat. The great genius Mr. Mohsen Rezaei, who has become secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and gives a lot of interviews these days, recommended in a television program that covered various topics, including the economy, an "economic jihad", meaning that, no, every young person

11:55 and every family should start producing in their neighborhood and at home, and that is how the economy's problems would be solved. This has made Mr. Rezaei a laughingstock and the butt of jokes among young people on social media, who show themselves making pickles and brewing wine at home, along with other sexual jokes, and with the ridiculous things they say they have given this Mr. Mohsen Rezaei exactly what he deserves. Hoping for the victory of Iran and Iranians.