The United States imposes sanctions on three Turkish entities linked to Iran and expands the economic isolation campaign

On Friday, the United States expanded its economic campaign against Iran by imposing sanctions on three entities based in Türkiye, in the latest step within the effort of the administration of President Donald Trump to tighten the noose on financial networks linked to Tehran.

On Friday, the United States imposed new Iran-related sanctions on three entities based in Turkey, in the latest step in President Donald Trump's administration's campaign to tighten economic pressure on Tehran six months after the outbreak of war.

The US Treasury Department stated that the sanctions targeted the “Golden Global Portfolio Management Company,” the “Golden Global Asset Leasing Company Limited,” and the “Golden Global Investment Bank.”

The ministry also issued a general license allowing the gradual termination of transactions with the three sanctioned entities.

The measure represents the latest step in the Trump administration's campaign to put economic pressure on Iran, in light of a war that has pushed energy prices up globally.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besent, who last month announced tougher economic sanctions on Iran, said Washington was seeking to force Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

Last week, Washington moved to stop Banque Misr branches in the Emirates from trading in dollars due to their dealings with Iran.

Besant said in an interview with Reuters on Sunday that the Treasury Department is expected to impose new secondary sanctions every week, initially focusing on banks, as part of a broader campaign to intensify economic pressure on Iran.

The sanctions on Turkish entities came after another American step, last week, targeting the branches of the “Bank of Egypt” in the Emirates. Washington moved to prevent it from conducting transactions in US dollars because of its dealings with Iran.

The secondary sanctions focus on non-Iranian institutions and entities that continue to deal with Tehran, threatening to deprive them of access to the US financial system and the dollar if they continue those relationships.

European Union

Earlier Friday, Besant said the European Union had “officially joined” “Operation Economic Pariah,” the name the Trump administration uses for its campaign to financially isolate Iran.

“The European Union has officially joined Operation Economic Pariah, and we appreciate its strong and early stance,” Besant wrote on the “X” platform.

He added that the United States stands with its allies to ensure that the Iranian regime is not able to use the global financial system to finance its nuclear program, weapons programs, and allied groups. He said: “The world is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime: We will not stop until every remaining financial artery is cut.”

Two days ago, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Asheville, the European Commission announced its support for the US sanctions imposed on Iran.

Expanding the circle of participants in the campaign represents a key axis in Washington's strategy, which seeks to prevent Tehran from transferring its transactions to banks and companies in other countries whenever one of its financial channels is exposed to sanctions.

Economic pressure

The new round of sanctions comes at a time when the United States and Iran are not holding direct talks, although back channels through mediators continue.

In previous statements, Besant had linked the economic escalation to an attempt to change Tehran's calculations and push it towards a new negotiation, while the Trump administration stressed in recent weeks that it is not ready to return to previous understandings under the same conditions.

The tightening of sanctions coincided with a naval blockade on Iranian exports and increasing pressure on banks and companies that help Tehran sell oil or settle its payments and finance its imports.

Recent measures showed an increasing focus on intermediaries and institutions outside Iran, after Tehran relied for years on financial and trade networks in other countries to circumvent US restrictions.

Moscow responds to Besant

American pressure extended to Iran's trade relations with Russia, China and India. Besant called on Moscow to "stay away" from Tehran following Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that his country would provide assistance to Iran.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Besant's comments, saying that the United States cannot monopolize relations with other countries.

“It is unlikely that the United States will be able to monopolize relations with any country, or that it will have the right to do so,” Peskov said in an interview with the TV program “Vesti” on Thursday. He added: “We have our partners and friends. We will maintain these friendly relations and partnership relations, and continue to develop them.”

Diplomats said on Friday that the United States, Britain, France and Germany are pressuring the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency to pass a resolution next week requiring Iran to be referred to the Security Council for the first time in 20 years, on the grounds of violating its obligations related to nuclear non-proliferation, according to Reuters.

The move comes as the agency says it is still unable to verify the location or condition of an essential part of Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, with its inspectors still absent from major nuclear facilities damaged in the June 2025 strikes.

If passed, the draft resolution would complement a resolution adopted by the Board of Governors on June 12, 2025, the day before Israel began striking Iranian nuclear facilities, and the United States joined the campaign shortly thereafter.

The 2025 resolution concluded that Iran had violated its safeguards and non-proliferation obligations due to its failure to fully cooperate with the agency’s investigation into traces of uranium found in undeclared sites.

The next day, Israel began bombing Iranian nuclear facilities, before the United States joined it shortly after, which led to the destruction or serious damage to Iranian uranium enrichment facilities.

Stock out of verification

A confidential IAEA report, distributed to member states this week, said inspectors were still unable to determine the location or condition of Iran's stockpile of uranium enriched to levels close to those used to make weapons.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that the lack of information about these materials and the lack of access to facilities to verify them represents “a source of concern related to nuclear proliferation,” calling on Tehran to allow the inspectors to return “with the utmost urgency.”

Before the June 2025 strikes, the agency estimated that Iran possessed 440.9 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 60 percent, a percentage technically close to the 90 percent level used in nuclear weapons.

According to the agency's standard, this quantity, if enriched to a higher degree, is sufficient to produce fissile material for about ten nuclear weapons.

Iran is the only country that enriches uranium to the level of 60 percent without having manufactured a nuclear weapon, while the agency considers the size of its stock at this level “an issue of grave concern.”

The loss of “continuity of knowledge” does not mean that the agency has proven the disappearance of the materials or their use, but rather that it no longer has connected data that would allow it to independently verify the locations and quantities of the inventory.

Inspectors outside key locations

IAEA inspectors have not yet returned to Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, sites linked to a major part of the enrichment operations and stockpiles that were under supervision before the strikes.

Inspections in Iran fell by more than half during 2025 after Tehran imposed additional restrictions following the Twelve Day War.

Iran is scheduled to allow inspectors to visit the Bushehr nuclear power plant in mid-September, but this does not yet include the main damaged sites.

If the resolution is approved, it will constitute the culmination of a dispute over the agency’s access to the affected sites, after the Board of Governors, which includes 35 countries, issued two resolutions over the past year demanding that Iran declare its stockpile of enriched uranium and give the agency full access to verify it.

The latest draft seen by Reuters stipulates that the Board of Governors will ask the Director-General of the Agency to refer the draft resolution and previous resolutions related to Iran to all member states of the Agency, and to the Security Council and the United Nations General Assembly.

The draft also renews its call on Iran to “urgently address its non-compliance with the safeguards agreement,” and to take the steps that the agency and the Board of Governors deem necessary so that the Director-General can provide guarantees regarding the “correctness and completeness” of Iranian declarations. Diplomats said that the draft has not yet been formally submitted to the Board of Governors, and that negotiations are still ongoing regarding its final form. They pointed out that the draft resolutions submitted by the four countries regarding Iran during recent years were approved every time.

But the Security Council is unlikely to take concrete action against Tehran, given that Russia and China, Iran's allies, enjoy permanent membership and veto power.

The war disrupted the nuclear path

The nuclear ambiguity worsened with the war that began on February 28 with American and Israeli attacks on Iran.

A temporary understanding was concluded in June that was supposed to pave the way for negotiations including the nuclear program, but it quickly collapsed, and the talks were not resumed.

US President Donald Trump says that preventing Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon is one of the goals of the war, while Tehran denies that it is seeking to make an atomic bomb.

Next week, the IAEA's Board of Governors is scheduled to discuss Grossi's report and the draft resolution that Washington and its allies are pushing for, in a move that may once again transfer the Iranian file from Vienna to the Security Council.

As a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Iran has the right to develop nuclear technology, including uranium enrichment, for peaceful purposes, while Tehran says it will not produce nuclear weapons. Iran has previously responded to Board of Governors decisions by expanding some of its nuclear activities or reducing its cooperation with the agency, but Reuters indicated that its margin for action on these two paths has become very limited in the current circumstances.

Iranian army spokesman Brigadier General Muhammad Akraminia said on Friday that the armed forces began responding to the recent US raids in southern Iran about 15 minutes after they were launched, using surface-to-surface missiles and drones, indicating that Iranian military doctrine is gradually moving towards carrying out “preemptive” operations.

Acremenia explained, in an interview, that the army targeted four American bases in three countries in the region. Two bases in the Emirates, the Sheikh Issa base in Bahrain, and a base in Kuwait, according to the official IRNA agency.

Akraminia reported that the army used “Fatah” surface-to-surface missiles in addition to “Arch 2” suicide drones. He said that the missiles and drones were equipped with new systems and technologies based on artificial intelligence, claiming that this made it difficult to intercept them and helped them reach their goals.

He pointed out that Iranian forces adopted tactics that he described as “combined and asymmetrical” in recent operations, without providing additional details about their nature.

3 stages of “Thunderbolt”

Acremenia pointed out that three stages of attacks were carried out as part of an exchange of strikes with American forces at the end of last July and last Wednesday, adding that they carried a “deterrent and proactive” nature.

He stated that after the 12-day war in June 2025, the armed forces began gradually shifting towards the concept of pre-emptive operations.

He said that Iran may resort to these operations “wherever it feels there is a threat,” considering that they fall within self-defense under international law. He did not specify the criteria used by the armed forces to assess the presence of an imminent threat.

He added that the shift towards “offensive doctrine” began during the tenure of Abdul Rahim Mousavi as chief of staff, who was killed on the first day of the war, and that recent operations demonstrated the practical application of this approach.

He cited previous Iranian attacks on American sites in Jordan, Syria, and the Iraqi Kurdistan region as examples of preemptive operations.

He also claimed that Iranian attacks during the past weeks hit radar facilities and air defense systems at American bases, and that their damage facilitated the paths of Iranian missiles and drones towards Israel.

He warned that any new Israeli participation in attacks on Iran would be met with a “faster and harsher” response, claiming that the ability of Iranian forces to target Israeli sites had improved as a result of the damage to air defense systems in the region.

Sticking to the Strait of Hormuz

Akramenia believed that the recent American attacks are an attempt to weaken Iran’s “ability” to impose its control over the Strait of Hormuz. He said that Tehran's goal is to "impose sovereignty" over the strait, and that the armed forces will adhere to this "until the end."

He added that the crossing of ships should take place, according to the Iranian position, in a manner that respects “the rights of the Iranian people,” and that the armed forces will decide which ships to allow to pass.

These statements contradict Washington's position, which says that the Strait of Hormuz is an international corridor, and that its operations aim to ensure freedom of navigation and prevent Iran from controlling the movement of ships.

Acremenia's statements came in conjunction with air defense commanders talking about continuing preparations for new confrontations.

Air Defense: “The threat has not ended”

The commander of the joint air defense “operations” headquarters, Ali Reza Elhami, said that the Iranian forces prepared themselves “for all types of confrontation in the present and future,” adding that Tehran believes that “the threat has not ended.”

Elhamy stated that the air defense units in the army and the Revolutionary Guard produced and developed defensive systems during the recent war, then deployed and used them on the field.

In the same context, Brigadier General Shamkhal Jafari, one of the commanders of the Joint Air Defense Operations Headquarters, said that the Iranian forces continued to develop their technical capabilities, speaking about future measures that he said would surprise opponents.

The Fars Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, quoted Jafari as saying that the Iranian forces will carry out movements in the field that will “confuse” the opponent and “surprise” him.

He added that the population's feeling of insecurity represents the "most difficult moment" for the Air Defense Forces, considering that the feeling of insecurity is more dangerous than the threat itself.

Calls to target American interests

In parallel, Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Hamid Reza Haji Babaei, called for targeting American economic interests and military bases in the region.

Haji Babaei said: “We must target American economic interests in the region, and actually strike American bases,” adding that tightening sanctions will make Iran, in his words, “more powerful and prepared” for confrontation.

The head of the Basij, the mobilization arm of the Revolutionary Guard, Hussein Taeb, also said that the United States “will eventually be forced to retreat before Iran,” holding Washington responsible for starting the war and the killing of the Iranian guide and military and civilian leaders.

Taeb claimed that the United States “resorted to a ceasefire and requested negotiations because of Iran’s steadfastness,” saying that Tehran did not request a ceasefire or negotiations.

The Iranian statements came days after the fiercest round of exchanged strikes since July. On Tuesday, the United States launched raids on a series of military targets along the Iranian coast. It said it targeted facilities and capabilities linked to the Revolutionary Guard, including air defenses, radars, communications sites, naval facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and missile platforms.

Washington explained that the strikes came in response to continued Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran responded by launching missiles and drones at sites it said hosted American forces in countries in the region, including Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain, while Gulf countries announced the interception of Iranian projectiles.

By Thursday, the pace of the confrontation appeared to have subsided, with no reports of new major attacks from either side.

The threat of military escalation comes after President Masoud Pezeshkian, Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf called for a return to the Memorandum of Understanding for Islamabad and an end to the war with the United States.

Return to the people about the war

In a supportive position for Bezeshkian, former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the decision to engage in a long-term confrontation with the major powers should not be taken without referring to the Iranians.

Rouhani said, in a recording published by Al-Khamis website, from a recent meeting he held with former political officials in his previous administration: “If we are scheduled to fight the major powers in the world for another 20 years, then we must first ask the people.”

He added, “No one rules here on his own initiative,” and continued: “Everyone who holds a position derives it from the people.” People voted for him, either directly or indirectly.”

Rouhani also called for supporting the negotiating team, regardless of its identity, saying that all political movements should stand behind the Iranian negotiators.

Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, Rouhani stressed the need to keep navigation and trade moving, saying: “The Strait of Hormuz must be our security strait, but it must be a prosperous strait. What good is a strait without ships? “We do not want to weaken global trade.”

He added that Iran accepts the “harmless crossing” of ships, considering this to be consistent with international rules, but he said that the crossing of any ship that threatens the security of Iran or Oman is “unacceptable.”

Rouhani said that Iran will not surrender to the “new economic war” led by US President Donald Trump, expressing his belief that countries, neighboring and non-neighboring, will continue their economic and trade relations with Tehran despite American pressure.