Trump admin unveils anti-Iran global sanctions plan, signals China not exempt

The Trump administration on Monday announced a plan to isolate Iran's economy by threatening to impose secondary sanctions on the "enablers" that allow the Islamic Republic to stay in business."We are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe," Treasury Scott Bessent said as he unveiled the new sanctions scheme, dubbed "Operation Economic Outcast."President Donald Trump is calling world leaders and making "specific requests to cease their interactions" with Iran, Bessent said at the Treasury Department.The promised sanctions have yet to be imposed. The U.S. will instead start by sending timelines to individual countries to "shut down activities we have identified," Bessent said."Any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system," he said. "The clock just started ticking."The plan, which Trump had hyped as Iran's "Economic D-Day," quickly drew questions about whether the U.S. would also go after China, Tehran's top trading partner.Washington and Beijing have maintained a fragile trade truce for months, following an escalatory trade war last year. Trump and President Xi Jinping met fo...