Maira Butt – The Independent Aug 20, 2026
Donald Trump has issued another economic threat against Iran, vowing “TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences” for any country that trades with Tehran.
In a rant on Truth Social, he wrote: “This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”
Tehran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said that the threats would only bring Trump “further defeat” as he struggles to find an exit strategy from an unpopular war.
“The so-called ‘Economic D-Day’ is a diversion from America’s own crisis: unprecedented debt & surging interest costs,” he wrote in a post on X on Thursday, alongside screenshots of news headlines and graphs about America’s economic troubles.
“Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat—and enmity of Iranians. US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide.”
What kind of sanctions could Trump impose?
The US had agreed to lift sanctions on sales of Iranian oil for the duration of a 60-day ceasefire that expired on Monday, but these were reimposed after the deal collapsed amid disagreement over the Strait of Hormuz last month.
For decades, it has imposed measures such as freezing assets, implementing trade embargoes and applying sanctions against Iran over issues such as its nuclear development and human rights violations.
Since the war, Washington has also imposed a naval blockade, restricting Iranian oil exports as well as levying additional maritime and energy sanctions since the war broke out.
Trump could escalate the situation by imposing secondary sanctions on third parties. However, he is limited in what he can enforce, say experts.
“The most likely step is tighter enforcement of secondary sanctions against companies, banks, insurers and shipping operators involved in Iranian oil exports,” says Dr Neil Quilliam, an energy policy, geopolitics and foreign affairs specialist, at Chatham House.
“The aim would be to make it more difficult and costly for third parties to do business with Iran, even if they are not based in the US.”
This is in line with what Trump has threatened, but Dr Quilliam says that even this could prove ineffective if the measures do not extend to China.
Could these sanctions have any impact on Iran’s economy?
Iran appears to have profited from the outbreak of conflict, with the country’s semi-official Fars news agency reporting that the country generated $7.5bn in oil revenues over the first four months of the year.
Citing the Iranian oil ministry, the agency said that this marked a revenue that is 1.5 times larger than the amount generated in the same period last year and is expected to cover the government’s foreign currency expenses for the rest of the year. These figures could not be independently verified.
Iran has developed ways to circumvent the worst impact of sanctions, including the use of shadow fleet tankers, floating storage and the use of alternative ports.
Dr Quilliam says that while further sanctions could increase pressure on Iran’s economy, alone they are unlikely to be decisive.
“Iran has spent years building networks to evade restrictions and has become adept at finding alternative routes to market,” he says.
“The greater challenge for Tehran would come if Washington succeeded in reducing demand for Iranian oil rather than simply targeting supply.”
Why China is so important
He says that the key issue here is China, which purchases 80 per cent of Iran’s oil.
“The US has repeatedly identified Chinese entities as facilitators of Iranian oil exports, but applying penalties on a large scale could have wider economic and diplomatic consequences.”
Iran has attempted to dodge the effects of this by offering discounts to Chinese companies.
“The credibility of Trump’s threat will depend on whether he is prepared to target major buyers as well as Iran itself,” continues Dr Quilliam.
“The bigger question is whether Washington is willing to bear the economic and diplomatic costs of targeting major buyers, especially in China, as well as close allies, such as the UAE, which remains a key node in capital flows for Iran, though cut financial ties on Tuesday.
“That is where rhetoric meets reality. There are also so many areas where the oil and/or money is moved – Iraq, UAE, Malaysia, overground routes Pakistan, Türkiye, Central Asia – so there is a lot to capture.”
Should Trump’s threat be taken seriously?
Trump has developed a notorious reputation for issuing stern threats before later reneging on them – earning him the infamous ‘TACO’ nickname (Trump Always Chickens Out) on Wall Street.
But despite this, Dr Quilliam says that the repercussions of sanctions on Iran could still be dire.
“Trump’s threat should be taken seriously, but its effectiveness depends on enforcement,” he says.
Secondary tariffs have been struck down by the Supreme Court on numerous occasions. Nevertheless, Trump could still sanction smaller “teapot” refineries in China that account for around 25 per cent of Chinese refinery capacity, sanction Chinese banks and impose a land blockade.
Last week, the Senate passed a Russia sanctions bill that included new Iran sanctions and could give Trump new tariff powers that he could potentially use against countries that aid Tehran’s commerce and weapons procurement.
But the legislation must still pass the U.S. House of Representatives, which could prove challenging given widespread concerns across both parties about the measures. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that the US would impose measures on Tehran that have “never been seen” before.
“The US can aim to tighten pressure on Iran’s oil exports and the commercial networks that support them but the timelines for implementing complex sanctions like this are lengthy, and impact would be far from immediate.”
shameful’: UK, Australia and Canada criticise Israel over Gaza aid convoy killings decision
Story by Jason Burke
Britain, Ireland Australia Rurkey yemen and Canada have called the decision of the Israeli military authorities not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of aid vehicles in Gaza “shameful”. The strikes killed seven humanitarian workers from the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) organisation. WCK staff from the three countries were among the casualties of the attack, which prompted global outrage.
“This decision is both too little, and too late. The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf. The World Central Kitchen attack is one of countless incidents in Gaza where there has been no accountability,” the countries’ joint statement said. WCK staff from these countries were among the casualties of the attack, which prompted global outrage.
“This decision is both too little, and too late. The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf. The World Central Kitchen attack is one of countless incidents in Gaza where there has been no accountability,” the countries’ joint statement said.
It continued: “In Gaza, humanitarian workers continue to work tirelessly to support civilians in desperate need, risking their lives whilst working in the most perilous conditions. Yet despite the fragile ceasefire, Gaza remains the deadliest place to deliver aid, with 186 humanitarian workers killed in 2025.”
On Thursday, Australia’s government expressed “outrage” over the decision, while relatives said that Zomi Frankcom, the Australian among those killed, deserved more than an “internal, opaque process that ends with a short statement by the Israeli military absolving their soldiers of criminal wrongdoing.
The israeli spokesman said ” bringing in food and medicines to palestine is against the law
these people will soon be hung as terrorists “
Trump knows the concept of hardship but has no concept of enduring it. He thinks hardship is being driven round in the Merc because some dignitary is travelling in the family Bentley. He has no idea about struggling to eat every day for years but getting by and coming through it much thinner. But not only do people survive it, many are prepared to endure it to defeat an arsehole like him.
Trump wants to wreck China’s economy…
How much oil does China have in reserve?
If by “oil reserve” you mean China’s stored crude oil stockpiles, the best current estimate is roughly 1.5 billion barrels.
The U.S. EIA estimates China had about 1.49 billion barrels of strategic oil inventories at the end of Q2 2026.
This is an estimate because China does not publicly disclose its oil-inventory figures.
Of that total, EIA estimated roughly 360 million barrels were government-held at the end of 2025, with about 1 billion barrels in commercial/refinery inventories.
Recent estimates put China’s total strategic stockpile at over 1.2 billion barrels even after drawdowns during the 2026 Middle East oil disruption.
But there are two very different meanings of “reserves” Type
China estimate
Stored oil / strategic + commercial inventories ~1.5 billion barrels
Underground proven oil resources ~28 billion barrels
China’s oil consumption ~16–17 million barrels/day
The ~28 billion barrels figure is oil that China has in the ground and is considered recoverable, not oil sitting in tanks.
So, as a rough illustration, 1.5 billion barrels in storage would equal around 90 days of China’s current oil consumption—although not all of those barrels are necessarily accessible or intended for emergency use.
If you’re asking because of China’s ability to withstand an oil blockade or major disruption, I can also break down how many days China could realistically survive on its reserves and domestic production.
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I wonder which countries are going to be spooked by Trump and obey him…
Just heard Iran has permitted Iraqi oil to sail through the straits in two or three or four tankers. Is Trump going to hijack them and sail them to an American port?
All your allies? You stupid Jew-run, traitorous American bastards have been sucked into making a new Rothschild dialectic for the 21st century. In fact you are engineering a Russian-Sino-Islamic pact set against the West with Israeli and Rothschild globalist interests coming up the middle – all of which will be very good for your nation which is thoroughly devoted to sustaining the US MIC and itself as the Western military bastion pitted against the new antithesis of the Asian pact.
This conflict with Iran is being stoked not only by the criminal Jewish doner class presently running the US and Rothschild’s criminal Zionist Israel, but also by the Rothschild dynasty whose interests are also deeply imbedded in China, and have been ever since the Opium Wars. With their controls over US and “allies” along with their controls of the USSR, that dynasty ensure that following WWII Mao’s communist forces succeeded in taking over China. They did that. The PRC is another Rothschild prodigy nations built on our backs, just like Israel.
After putting the West and most of the rest of the world through their dialectic ringer between capitalism and communism in the 20th century, and then systematically debt-rigging and looting the West with their “reproachment” thesis of open trade with their commie-capitalist China (holding it out as “the model nation of the world” for their planned globalist 21th century), they are no doubt counting on another controlled dialectic polarity to ensure that Israel dominates West Asia along with control of vast oil and gas reserves, and that the blackened and blood-soaked fingers of the House of Rothschild are in every pie putting to ensure the end-game synthesis of global dominance over finances, major assets, trade, politics and social engineering.
Yes, quite a mouthful, but someone please prove me wrong. The world because of them and all of their efforts to snuff out Christianity is quickly turning into a caldron of blatant deceit, fear, theft and violence, with absolutely no moral limits for those most powerful magnates. Remove their centralized controls and then “we can begin to build back better” through trust and good will coming from a new ruling class bound by principles based on a broad and equitable distribution of truth, freedom and justice.
I am sure that all of what I say falls on deaf ears if anyone even bothers read it. But what other real “truth-seeker” forum is there out there which is not shackled by national, globalist, ideological, money-grubbing, special or self interest, and is able to fucus on the central evils plaguing the world without deliberately losing its readers with frivolous and nefarious defection topics to water down their real punch – like what happened to Zero Hedge and Gateway Pundit. No doubt the US deep state forced them to diversity and bury real news on hot issues in heaps ticky tacky for the perks of having some revenue and to be free of the fear of being shut down or snuffed out. It was Samuel Johnson who said “A man must have his talk out.” He meant that his club gatherings were places where a man could “fold his legs and have his talk out”—that is, “speak at length, develop an argument, and have his ideas tested by others”.
“China is unlikely to comply.” No kidding. Why on earth would the Chinese descend to a nefarious position of doing Trump’s dirty work for him? Just because Trump is doing exactly that for the genocidal criminals occupying a sliver of land thousands of miles from America’s shores, doesn’t mean it’s OK. You got it, Pooey Pants?
Does the US and the controlling “money power” really want an “off ramp” from the war with Iran? Apparently not. They appear to be out to force China to quit it support for Iran and likely not just economically. Putting Iran under economic siege with embargoes and blockades to starve it out, however, is still an act of war, and at this sage it can only increase Iranian resolve along with the rest of the world against USrael-led aggression, along with the realization that the US cannot really defend any of its foreign military bases, or even its mighty naval fleets.
China is either being built up, or is building itself up, into a military giant to challenge the US, at least as far as we are supposed to believe with the news fed to us from the “Controllers” of our nations and the mainstream media? So, if it is (or will be) such a formidable adversary to the US, which is the military bastion and bully-boy of the West, then why do we have any trade with such a totalitarian nation at all? The likely reason is that China is under the control of the same puppet masters.
Nothing really makes sense unless you can determine the real and long-range interests of the actual ownership class pulling all of the stings and levers. The war in the Ukraine is not “fake” in the sense that each side is not murdering soldiers with the latest in drone technologies, nor that the Russians are not making their major advancements mainly through old-fashioned artillery poundings. It certainly seems real in that sense from the news we are fed, and the fact that like in Syria, millions of the local inhabitants have been dispersed from their homeland and holdings.
As for the war with Iran, Kit Knightly has said at one point that he thought it was largely fake or contrived. Also, at the time of the outbreak last February, Simon Dickson, opined that the regime change in Iran had already occurred, suggesting that the fireworks were contrived. To keep the death toles down the Iranians are still notifying the US bases which remain manned and womanised in the region, warning them to take cover before they send in their missiles. I know for a fact that was the case last week in at least one US base in the area.
The war in Iran certainty seems as planned and contrived as the war in the Ukraine, and neither are all-out wars. The Ukrainians were never really given any real air cover or support, and were never properly equipped or trained to meet the Russian advances. It was as if the centers of US logistics and coordination were systematically ceding huge hunks of Ukrainian turf to the Russians, in some hidden Zio-Trump-like deal.
As for the war in Iran, it would appear that the genocide in Gaza and the Israeli land grabs in Lebanon are even more real and devastating than what the same Rothschild USrael military behemoth inflicted on Iraq, Libya and Syria. With respect to those blatant EVILS it would also appear that Iran is the only nation ON THE GLOBE putting up a real resistance based on some religiously-based moral principles against the wanton human slaughter, resource plundering, and land grabs against fellow Muslims. Other than woke Pope Leo declaring the aggression by USrael to be an “unjust war” there has been no threats of Vatican excommunications for any Catholics perpetuating it.
With such episcopal leverage, if exercised, it at least would be the most real “ecumenical” gesture to the Muslims since Vatican II in the 1960s, and may even serve for the US to look for an Up↑ ramp based on higher values rather than that US down↓ ramp exit, of a war of attrition to conquer Iran.
Instead of now looking to hide their shame in being caught not just with their pants down, both the US and Israel have been exposed to the entire world from the beginning of their relationship in 1948 in relying upon an invisible suit of fake news and propaganda to hide their horrendous crimes, their despicable stealth, and their hegemonic intentions. Should they proceed along this twisted way, at least even the puppet masters will be exposed, the people of the world are bound to turn completely against them, and they will no longer have any place to hide.
There goes that bloated colostomy bag spewing shit again. Zion Don the Con should be forced over a tree stump, his tongue nailed to it, his mouth stuffed with pig shit, and a hardbound copy of the talmud jack-hammered up his ass while getting worked over with a tire iron. then shove the grifting chabadnik degenerate. into a wood-chipper.