Who are Iran’s top trading partners US would need to target to isolate it?
EXPLAINER The US wants to isolate Iran from the global economy. Here is who Tehran trades with, and how much is at stake.
Why It Matters
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Key Facts
- Fact 1: United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unveiled a new wave of sanctions on Iran, branded “Operation Economic Outcast”, designating close to 60 entities, individuals and vessels and widening secondary sanctions to cover shipping, gold, aviation, technology and digital assets.
- Fact 2: In 2024, Iran exported some $56bn worth of goods to at least 112 countries and territories, according to official customs figures.
- Fact 3: Its top export partners were: China ($14.58bn) – The largest buyer of Iranian oil, taking more than 80 percent of Iran’s seaborne crude exports, according to tanker-tracking analysts.
- Fact 4: Iraq ($11.7bn) – Iran has been a major supplier of gas to Iraq for electricity generation, and sells electricity directly to Iraqi provinces in the south.
EXPLAINER The US wants to isolate Iran from the global economy. Here is who Tehran trades with, and how much is at stake.
United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has unveiled a new wave of sanctions on Iran, branded “Operation Economic Outcast”, designating close to 60 entities, individuals and vessels and widening secondary sanctions to cover shipping, gold, aviation, technology and digital assets. He said the aim was to sever every economic lifeline sustaining the government in Tehran until it stands alone, and that President Donald Trump was telephoning world leaders with specific requests to halt their dealings with Iran, though he named no countries and set no deadline. Below, we break down Iran’s top trading partners using official customs figures compiled by Trade Data Monitor, which exclude the unrecorded flows sustaining much of Iran’s oil exports.
(Original synthesis pending human/AI review — generated by the stub provider by selecting real sentences from the source material, not by writing new analysis or commentary.)
Original source: Al Jazeera
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