Treasury Imposes New Iran Sanctions Day Before Geneva Nuclear Talks, Undercutting Diplomacy

On February 25, 2026 - the day before the third round of US-Iran nuclear talks opened in Geneva - the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced a new wave of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil export network. The penalties targeted 12 vessels along with several companies and individuals the US said were involved in Iranian oil sales and weapons procurement.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the sanctions with the statement that “Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, procure components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies.” The timing - 24 hours before envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were scheduled to sit across from Iranian negotiators in Geneva - was deliberate. The Trump administration explicitly framed the simultaneous pressure as a negotiating tactic: maximum coercion paired with nominal diplomacy.

The Geneva talks on February 26 proceeded despite the sanctions announcement. Mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaid at the residence of Oman’s ambassador to the UN, they were described by a senior US official as “positive” and the “longest, most serious” round yet. Iran said “understandings” had been reached on some issues. But significant gaps remained, particularly over Iran’s demand to retain uranium enrichment on its soil - a red line Tehran had held throughout the talks.

The pattern of imposing new sanctions immediately before or during negotiations reflected a structural incoherence in the Trump approach: using diplomacy as a public legitimation shield while systematically destroying the conditions under which a deal could be reached. Iran’s negotiators were asked to make concessions in talks while absorbing new economic punishment in the same news cycle. Three days after the Geneva talks concluded without a deal, the US launched Operation Epic Fury. The sanctions round of February 25 was, in retrospect, among the final acts of the diplomatic phase - whether or not that was its intent.