Trump Declares Economic D-Day on Iran — Here Are the Countries Most Exposed

The Trump administration announced an "economic D-Day" campaign on Monday to isolate Iran from the global economy, threatening penalties against what it calls "enabler" nations that continue doing business with Tehran. The move is part of Washington's bid to sever the trade lifeline that has sustained Iran's economy through nearly six months of war.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has threatened to deploy "the full might" of the U.S. government against any country that continues to trade with Iran, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. While enforcement details remain sketchy, the threat could put Washington on a collision course with some of Tehran's major trade partners.

**China: The biggest buyer**

China is the largest buyer of Iranian oil and serves as a crucial link to the global economy for Tehran, accounting for about 90% of Iran's oil exports, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The commission reported $9.96 billion in bilateral trade between China and Iran in 2025, excluding roughly $31.2 billion in unreported Iranian crude oil exports to China that year.

Independent Chinese refiners take in the bulk of the oil, often rebranded as Malaysian or Indonesian crude and settled through intermediaries outside the dollar system, according to energy analytics firm Kpler. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned several of those refineries this year for Iranian oil purchases, while sparing Chinese financial institutions.

Beijing has openly opposed U.S. sanctions against Iran, arguing that economic pressure will not resolve the disputes. In May, China ordered domestic firms to disregard U.S. sanctions on five refiners linked to the Iranian oil trade, Bloomberg reported. While Beijing is unlikely to push back directly on Washington's sanctions push, it will "quietly step up compliance" among state banks and oil companies to avoid getting caught in the net, said Dan Wang, China director at Eurasia Group.

**United Arab Emirates: The financial hub**

The Emirates, located just 50 miles from Iran across the Persian Gulf, has long been a major trading hub for Iran. Bilateral trade amounted to around $28 billion in 2024, when the Emirates was Iran's largest source of imports, contributing over 30%, according to World Trade Organization data. The UAE was also Iran's third-largest export destination, making up 12% of its shipments, totaling more than $7 billion.

That relationship hit a snag last week as the UAE moved to suspend all trade and financial transactions with Iran, following two ballistic missiles fired toward Emirati territory, one of which targeted UAE-owned tankers. Iran has relied on UAE banks and its financial system to access the world economy through illicit, often murky transactions, according to The Washington Institute, a U.S.-based think tank. Cutting off Iran would require more forceful actions from Emirati authorities to crack down on opaque financial and trading activity, the institute noted.

Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. Treasury official, wrote in a note on Monday that "the majority of Iran's transshipment, smuggling, and shadow banking activity takes place in Dubai." The U.S. has sanctioned 353 UAE-linked entities for illicit financial conduct related to Iran — nearly a quarter of Washington's total Iran-related designations worldwide, according to The Washington Institute. Only China outranks the UAE with 469 sanctioned entities.

**Turkey: Energy dependence**

Turkey maintains significant commercial ties with Tehran, importing Iranian natural gas and exporting manufactured goods south. Turkey-Iran bilateral trade reached $5.7 billion in 2024, according to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with Ankara exporting mostly machinery and parts, chemical and agricultural products, while importing energy products from Tehran.

Under a 25-year gas supply contract between the two countries that expired at the end of July, Turkey's imports of Iranian gas spiked this year while Iran's share of Turkey's total natural gas imports rose to 18.6%, according to local media. While Ankara has sought to diversify toward other suppliers, expanding pipeline imports from Azerbaijan and Russia, it has not signaled that it intends to cut Iran off.

**Iraq: Billions in energy payments**

Iraq, dependent on Iranian electricity and gas, has historically traded billions with Tehran. Iran renewed a five-year contract in March 2024 to supply Iraq with up to nearly 660 billion cubic feet of natural gas a year, and electricity imports from Iran accounted for more than 30% of its electricity generation in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Iraq-Iran trade reached more than $10 billion in 2025, according to Reuters, with Tehran exporting food, consumer goods and other products to the Iraqi market. The trade has dwindled this year amid increased security risks in the region and intermittent disruptions along border crossings since the war started in late February. Iraq reportedly pays Iran around $4 billion to $5 billion a year for natural gas for electricity generation. The fresh U.S. sanctions could curtail Baghdad's payments for Iranian energy.

**India: A delicate balancing act**

India, among Iran's top five trading partners, has seen its bilateral trade with Iran fall in recent years to around $1.6 billion in the year ending March 2026, according to India's Department of Commerce, down from $2.3 billion in the year through to March 2023. New Delhi primarily exports rice, tea, sugar and pharmaceuticals to Iran, and imports dry and fresh fruits from Iran. In April, India resumed importing crude oil from Iran following a seven-year halt, after the U.S. temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian crude exports. But those trades now will be tested if Washington makes good on its threat to sanction any entity, including Indian refiners, that have procured Iranian energy.

The stakes are high. If secondary sanctions are enforced aggressively, the ripple effects could reach global energy markets, shipping routes and the cost of capital for any entity touching Iranian trade. For now, the world is watching to see whether Washington's economic D-Day is a negotiating tactic — or the opening salvo of a much wider economic war.