The announcement had not happened when this page went to press; the advertising had. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC last week he intends to "collapse" Iran's government with "the toughest sanctions in history," and on Sunday authored a Financial Times piece promising that "at dawn begins an economic D-Day." [2] A news conference to explain the package is scheduled for Monday afternoon. [1]

What was knowable by Sunday was the scale of the claim, not the content of the measure. President Trump has spent a week telegraphing "the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country" and warning of consequences for any nation still trading with Tehran. [2] Tehran answered in kind — its foreign minister called the threatened package desperation, an IRGC spokesman dismissed it as an admission of military defeat, and security council chief Mohsen Rezaei designated compliance with it an act of war. [1][3]

The open questions are all operational. How many entities and vessels get named; whether secondary sanctions reach Chinese buyers of Iranian oil or stop short; whether allies receive timelines or ultimatums — none of that was public by press time. [2] RBC's Helima Croft put the skeptical case Friday: Iran is among the most sanctioned economies on earth, and nobody can say what one more campaign changes. [2] Monday tests whether unprecedented means effective, or merely larger.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington