Operation Economic Outcast
Bhabani Shankar Nayak
On 24 August 2024, the Trump administration started “Operation Economic Outcast” in order to totally isolate the Islamic Republic of Iran, along with any country that enables Iran’s economic survival in the global economy. This is not merely an economic onslaught against the Iranian regime and the people of Iran; it is an assault on the global energy economy, which is crucial for the survival of millions of people across the globe. It threatens countries that depend on Iran’s natural gas and oil or are otherwise connected to Iran. It also threatens to remove countries from the US dollar system if they facilitate or engage with Iran. This is perhaps the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country.
According to the administration, “Operation Economic Outcast” involves “the new sectoral sanctions determinations issued today [that] target five of Iran’s most vital lifelines that it exploits in other countries: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. These measures broaden secondary sanctions risk for anyone foolish enough to continue conducting business with this regime.” These measures will directly affect the Iranian people, who are already suffering under various forms of distress. While announcing the operation, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent threatened that “nations that facilitate any interactions with the regime should quickly heed our message. Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership; those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime.” This message is a pure imperialist threat from a crumbling American empire, wielding its brute military power. These threats are designed to coerce countries into complying with the American hegemonic imperialist order.
“Operation Economic Outcast” is designed not only to kill Iran’s economic potential but also to contain all post-colonial countries across the world. After the failure of the Washington Consensus, neoliberal globalisation, and its market-led capitalist order, American imperialism is determined to destroy the conditions for a revival of the New International Economic Order (NIEO)–an order based on “the principles of equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest, cooperation and solidarity among all States,” as adopted by the UN on 1 May 1974 and reaffirmed on 20 December 2018. The NIEO was designed to democratise the international economic order. However, American imperialism is fundamentally opposed to any idea of even a minimally egalitarian economic and democratic system that does not rely on dependency, inequality, and exploitation.
Historically, the US has not only rejected the NIEO but also reinforced conditions to destroy its principles, branding it a project of centralised monopolistic power. The US and its arbitrary economic and military actions, based on unilateralism, are destroying the world economy and world peace. American imperialism protects neither American citizens nor American interests; it protects only American corporations, at the cost of people both in America and beyond. Meanwhile, European countries continue to follow American hegemony like compliant machines, at the expense of their own populations. American imperialism, supported by the European ruling-class minions, works tirelessly to destroy all conditions of democracy, peace, and prosperity in the pursuit of corporate capitalism. “Operation Economic Outcast” is not only against the people of Iran but also against the entire world population.
For 47 years, the Islamic republic of Iran has bedevilled US presidents. But Trump’s humiliation seems to be the worst in America’s foreign policy failures. But this maximum pressure strategy like the earlier ones will fail. Courtesy: Frontier Vol 59, No. 13, Sep 20 – 26, 2026 Pic courtesy: The Firstpost
