Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent began the week vowing an "economic onslaught" against Iran and its trading partners in a renewed push to end the war. By week's end, countries with ties to Tehran had largely shrugged off the threat, and analysts were left underwhelmed by the actions the United States actually took.

China, which purchases 90% of Iran's oil, responded with a defiant warning to Washington rather than backing down. That defiance echoes earlier rounds of US secondary sanctions: Washington has sanctioned Chinese refiners and traders over Iranian oil purchases in past years, yet Chinese imports have continued, with Beijing consistently criticizing unilateral US measures as lacking legal basis under international law. Iranian bank branches remained open in Dubai. At one Bank Melli branch in Abu Dhabi, staff were busy at their desks, and one employee explained that the bank was still open for business.

Commercial flights also continued between Iran and Turkey, as well as between Iran and the United Arab Emirates — a country that had promised just last week to sever all trade and financial transactions with Tehran. Routes to Thailand and Azerbaijan, along with multiple destinations in both Russia and China, remained unaffected.

As the week closed, the US announced plans to sanction the UAE-based branches of Egypt's Banque Misr, according to Bloomberg. The move fell well short of expectations set by Bessent's warning that the world would see "a major announcement of a financial institution being sanctioned by the end of this week."

"As the war passes the six-month mark, the public actions taken by the Treasury Department this week do not match the hype," said Alex Zerden, a former US Treasury official and founder of Capitol Peak Strategies. "Operation Economic Outcast is a continuation of 47 years of restrictive economic measures against Iran but does not provide a clearer theory of economic or military victory in this current campaign."

The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Bessent's threats — and the collective global shrug so far — underscore the central conundrum facing the Trump administration as it seeks to sanction Iran into meeting its demands. Any truly effective sanctions campaign would need to target China, a step that risks retaliation and potentially massive global economic fallout. Anything less would deepen Iran's economic pain without shifting its strategic calculus. That trade-off has shaped US policy before: earlier waves of sanctions, including measures that curtailed Iran's central bank access in the early 2010s, pushed Tehran to the negotiating table for the 2015 nuclear deal — but that agreement came through multilateral pressure and diplomacy, not unilateral action alone.

US credibility is also on the line. Bessent repeatedly likened the US response to the historic 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy, France — a coordinated land and air invasion aimed at toppling the Nazi regime. Yet the latest US move was unilateral, pressuring other countries rather than working alongside them, and Bessent openly acknowledged that moving too fast and too hard risked tanking the global financial system.

Further muddying the picture, Bessent also said the US was engaged in "quiet diplomacy" to achieve its objectives. US officials turned to counterparts in the UK asking for a statement of support, which was issued, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Treasury chief is also expected to speak with fellow finance ministers this weekend at a Group of 20 gathering in Asheville, North Carolina. One of the biggest questions attendees will likely put to Bessent is whether the US is willing to hit a Chinese financial institution, according to Josh Lipsky, chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. That question carries weight beyond Iran: sanctioning a major Chinese bank would reverberate through global payment systems, given China's role as the world's second-largest economy and a central node in world trade.

The UAE, a key US strategic ally, said earlier this month it would cut financial ties with Iran. But some flight and banking links with Tehran appear to continue, and the UAE government described its move in a statement to Bloomberg News as a "sovereign decision reflecting its strategic assessment of the national interest and the requirements of regional security."

Asked on Thursday which countries the US had approached so far, President Donald Trump responded: "about Iran? There's not a lot to speak to. We don't want to speak to them. We're not looking to meet or anything."

"You can't unleash meaningful economic warfare on Iran while ignoring the one country that absorbs 90% of its oil exports," said Leland Miller, CEO of the China Beige Book data platform and a commissioner on the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which advises the US Congress.

In the meantime, the US appears no closer to ending the war that Trump launched alongside Israel in late February. Iran has endured decades of harsh sanctions dating back to the 1979 revolution and hostage crisis, and has recently faced a full US Navy blockade of its ports that has dried up oil exports.

Officials in nations with traditionally strong economic links to Iran say they have heard little from Washington this week. Turkey has not received any formal guidance from the US on the restrictions and how they apply to Iran, according to people familiar with the matter — though they believe they will have adequate time to discuss and implement requirements once informed.

Pakistan's response suggested that even countries with close ties to the US feel little immediate pressure from the new campaign, at least so far. While Islamabad has won praise from Trump for its mediation efforts to end the war, there was no indication that its overland trade with the Islamic Republic — including goods such as rice and mangoes — had slowed. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters this week that the country "is not obliged" to respond to unilateral sanctions.

"The idea Iran can be knocked out with this is risible — it's not going to move the needle," said Stephen Fallon, principal adviser at DBM Consulting. "It's not possible to get a completely airtight seal on this thing. There are too many actors, and it's too rewarding for the people involved."

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.