The US Treasury Department on Friday unveiled its first 'secondary' Iran sanctions related to Trump's 'Economic D-Day' against Iran, on Friday naming an Egyptian bank in the UAE.
Ironically both of these latter countries are close American allies, and this comes at a moment the White House has failed to confirm whether the US will actually go after China for the same trade violations.
The UAE branches of Egypt's Banque Misr are being newly sanctioned over their business dealings with Iran, cutting off the branches' access to US financial institutions and forbidding transactions in US dollar.
"Treasury promised to sever every economic lifeline Tehran has left and finally end the threat of the Iranian regime," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement given to FT.
"We also warned that Iran's enablers cannot continue to enjoy access to the US dollar and the global financial system. Banque Misr UAE decided to find out the hard way and, today, we are taking the first step in holding it accountable for its continued, egregious support of the Iranian regime," Bessent added.
In addition, there is an entity which could be characterized as on the 'periphery' of China and its Iran dealings also newly named and targeted.
Treasury separately imposed sanctions on a financial entity in Hong Kong and one person linked to Iran's Bank Melli. This is "a Hong Kong entity that it said helped launder money for a sanctioned Iranian exchange house," Reuters notes of the statement.
Reuters further explains of the new action:
Egypt's central bank said on Friday that the U.S. action only affected Banque Misr's UAE branches and did not extend to any other Egyptian banks. The Central Bank of Egypt said in a statement that it and Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs were in contact with the U.S. authorities about the measures.
A Treasury official also said the action only applies to Banque Misr's UAE branches, allowing the bank to continue dollar transactions through its head office in Cairo and other foreign branches. These include Paris, Frankfurt, Riyadh, Beirut and Djibouti, according to Banque Misr's website.
...So even the Egypt-related action is very limited in terms of its reach. The Egyptian government has long been under the direct influence of US foreign policy, given that decades ago it made peace with Israel, and is recipient of a regular flow of billions in foreign aid going back decades.
Trump this month basically halted all over military actions against Iran, opting instead for unleashing a "most crushing economic operation" against Tehran.
"ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences," Trump stated on Truth Social.
But again it is still very up in the air whether Washington will actually directly target Beijing with any punitive actions over its oil trade relationship with the Islamic Republic.