U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a press conference in the Treasury Cash Room on August 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Mehmet Ethel | Anadolu | Getty Images
The Treasury Department on Friday moved to impose sanctions on the UAE branch of an Egyptian bank over its financial ties to Iran.
The ministry said in a statement that it intends to revoke Misr UAE Bank’s access to US financial institutions.
Misr UAE Bank has processed about $1.8 billion over the past two years for about 100 companies that may be part of Iran’s shadow banking network, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The move comes four days after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent launched Operation Economic Outcast, a sanctions campaign aimed at severing all Iranian economic ties around the world.
Bessent said on Monday that the Treasury Department would make “a significant announcement by the end of this week about the targets of sanctions on financial institutions.”
President Donald Trump has described the sanctions campaign against Iran as the economic equivalent of “D-Day,” when Western allies invaded Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. But the Treasury Department’s actions against the Islamic Republic have so far been modest in scope.
The Ministry of Finance on Friday also blacklisted Reza Mohammad Taidi, an Iranian national who is the general manager of Iran’s Mehri Bank Dubai branch. It also sanctioned a Hong Kong company, Kamen Trading Limited, for allegedly acting as a front company for money laundering for Iranian currency exchanges.
Iran’s crude oil exports are an important source of income, and China is its main customer. The U.S. Navy’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has sharply reduced those exports, but Kupler said tankers carrying millions of barrels of Iranian crude are still in Asia waiting to be unloaded in China.
Asked whether the U.S. would sanction Chinese institutions, Bessent said Monday: “No one is beyond the scope of U.S. sanctions.”
“If they are part of an ecosystem that facilitates trade and turns Iranian oil into money and oppression, then they will be targeted,” Bessent said.
