New Delhi, Aug. 25 -- TEHRAN - The milestone came without ceremony. On Sunday, currency exchange dealers in Tehran's Ferdowsi Square began quoting the US dollar at 2 million Iranian rials, a rate that had never been reached in the country's financial history and that arrived, by coincidence or design, one day before US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was due to announce what Washington described as "economic D-Day" against Iran.

Bessent was to outline new economic measures on Monday targeting Iran's remaining trade partners, Persian Gulf port access, and crude oil revenue, the three financial lifelines that have sustained the rial's already-weakened position through successive rounds of sanctions. The announcement, framed in Bessent's o...