Trump rejects return to June Iran deal as diplomatic efforts stall
The Wall Street Journal’s Morning Risk Report, filed from Dubai, observed Iranian commercial life continuing alongside the Treasury’s escalation of secondary sanctions pressure. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent labeled the campaign “Economic D-Day” and made clear the United States would no longer tolerate nations supporting Iranian economic activity, the Journal reported.
The walk through Dubai found Iranian commercial activity “all happening in plain sight,” the Journal reported. The publication described Iranian business activity as having “deep, mutually lucrative roots” in the United Arab Emirates’ commercial capital, where it “continues to thrive despite the American warnings.”
The Treasury campaign is running in parallel with separate attempts to restart diplomacy with Tehran. The Trump administration has repeatedly told mediators it has no interest in returning to the terms of the memorandum of understanding reached with Iran in June, according to people familiar with the matter. That position is complicating this week’s flurry of efforts to restart the diplomatic process.
The preliminary deal, signed by President Trump at the Palace of Versailles and negotiated in part by Vice President JD Vance, had aimed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, launch negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, and bring the war to an end. In exchange, Tehran would have received sanctions relief and access to Iranian funds frozen abroad, the Journal reported.
The deal fell apart within weeks after Iran began attacking ships to assert its control over the vital waterway. Pressure on Iran from the United States has been building across some of the world’s most important trade routes — from the Strait of Hormuz to Panama — according to the Journal.
The contrast between Bessent’s “Economic D-Day” rhetoric and the ongoing Iranian commercial presence in Dubai underscores the limits of secondary sanctions when host governments maintain their own commercial and security relationships with Tehran.
As MSI previously reported, Iranian bank branches in Dubai — including a multistory Bank Melli location along the city’s creek — remained open and continued serving Farsi-speaking customers in the days after Bessent specifically called for the bank’s branches to close.