Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday the U.S. would ramp up economic pressure against Iran next week as the Trump administration eyes options for winning the war that has stretched on for nearly six months.
Bessent did not offer details, but suggested a new wave of actions against Iran could be coming, marking a “combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before.”
Recommended Stories
“Watch this space for more announcements coming next week because we are going to apply measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation of a country,” the treasury secretary said during an appearance on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight. “It will be a combination of economic isolation like the world has never seen before, and the continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz that will keep anything from going in or out of the Iranian ports.”
Bessent’s comments on derailing Iran’s economy come after President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested a shift away from military force in the conflict in favor of “low-keying it” with economic pressure. At the time, the president emphasized that the U.S. naval blockade had exacerbated Iran’s economic crisis.
“It will work out. It always works out. It’s like a chess game,” Trump said. “We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”
The U.S. naval blockade on vessels seeking to enter or exit Iranian ports around the Strait of Hormuz has already had a significant impact on the country’s economy, costing it nearly $5 billion in oil revenue by the beginning of May.
TRUMP HAS HIS KAROLINE LEAVITT REPLACEMENT LINED UP AS HE RETOOLS WHITE HOUSE PRESS OPERATION
The head of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday that the naval blockade could cost Iran $18 billion annually, if continued. War Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Thursday that the U.S. could keep up its naval blockade on Iran “indefinitely.”
“The worst thing that could happen today is for us to think that we can circumvent the naval blockade and try to run the country despite it,” Majidreza Hariri, head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce, told Iranian media site Khabar Online. “We did something similar with the sanctions. Instead of lifting them or finding mechanisms to neutralize them, we turned to circumventing the sanctions, and the result was a weakened economy and major corruption.”
