Oil prices fell Monday as investors awaited details on Washington’s so-called toughest sanctions campaign against Iran, while Tehran rejected the threat of increased economic pressure.
West Texas Intermediate futures decreased approximately 1.62% to $85.65 per barrel, while Brent crude dropped 1.38% to $93.09 per barrel.
The drop in crude prices comes as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is scheduled to announce a new set of sanctions on Iran later Monday. “At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshaled against an adversary,” Bessent said in a post on X.
Bessent will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Monday, promising to unveil even more stringent actions against a country that has faced almost nonstop economic sanctions since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The announcement comes after President Donald Trump’s recent threat last week to initiate the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.”
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on Sunday suggested economic retaliation. “If the economic war continues, not a single drop of oil will be exported, neither through the Strait of Hormuz nor from anywhere in the Persian Gulf… Iran will regard any country’s participation in or support for America’s economic war against the Iranian people as an act of war.”
On Sunday, Iran’s state-controlled Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) published a series of posts on X, cautioning that vessels breaking its transit regulations in the Hormuz might be subject to penalties such as fines, seizure, or confiscation in future passages.
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
