Kuala Lampur, Sept. 9 -- For Iran and the United States, August 24 was not so much Groundhog Day as the latest instalment in a franchise that refuses to die.

"We are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe," declared U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The objective, he said, was to sever every economic lifeline sustaining the Iranian regime.

Splendidly cinematic language. Washington was once again reaching for the economic garrotte.

But America had announced much the same thing in April, when the White House unveiled Operation Economic Fury and promised a "financial stranglehold" on Tehran. Donald Trump's first administration had already marketed its sanctions as "maximum pressure," wit...