Why Dubai may be vital to the Trump administration's economic war on Iran

President Trump threatened this week to wield an "unprecedented" level of economic warfare against Iran, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed to "collapse" the Islamic Republic regime with the "toughest sanctions in history." But the effectiveness of a bolstered economic campaign against Iran may rest largely on one close U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates. The Emirati city of Dubai, the Middle East's leading financial center, has long had a reputation as a hub for opaque economic activity. For Iran in particular, the city has offered ways to skirt international sanctions and gain access to vital funds from its sale of oil to countries like China."About 80% of Iran's foreign currency exchange is done in Dubai. So Dubai has served as a major source for Iran's foreign currency," Miad Maleki, a former U.S. Treasury official, told CBS News on Friday. "Iran's economy today runs based on this kind of scheme of selling oil to China and then either using the funds that are generated from sales of oil to China to pay for imports from China, but also moving some of those funds outside China to jurisdictions like UAE through exchange houses," he said.Maleki said he ...