Toll Booths and Tankers: How the US Navy and Economic Sanctions Aim To Squeeze Tehran

(RFE/RL) A US naval blockade on ships entering Iranian ports and coastal areas took effect on April 13 as Washington increasingly turns to “economic statecraft” to force Tehran to agree on a peace deal after weeks of air strikes. RFE/RL spoke with Max Meizlish, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a former official at the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), on the intersection of naval blockades and financial warfare. Meizlish argues that while kinetic air strikes grab headlines, the real battle is being fought against the Chinese financial lifelines and clandestine trade networks that keep the Iranian regime afloat. – Toll Booths and Tankers: How the US Navy and Economic Sanctions Aim To Squeeze Tehran