WASHINGTON – US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared on Sunday that America is strangling Iran’s leadership with a relentless “economic blockade” tied to its military campaign, leaving the regime unable to fund its forces.
In a Fox News appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Bessent detailed how President Trump’s “maximum pressure” directive from last March evolved into the Treasury’s “Economic Fury” operation three weeks ago. This complements the Pentagon’s “Operation Epic Fury,” he explained. “We are suffocating the regime, they can’t pay their soldiers. It’s a full-government effort, all hands on deck,” Bessent stated.
Tensions grip the Strait of Hormuz, the vital artery for Gulf hydrocarbon exports, where both nations have restricted shipping. Iran has halted most traffic, while the US Navy enforces a ban on vessels to or from Iranian ports. Negotiations proceed amid a shaky ceasefire.
Bessent targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), vowing sanctions on any funds flowing to the group. “They’re corrupt, stealing from their people for years with offshore cash we’ve tracked. We’ll seize it and hold it for Iranians once this ends,” he said. On May 2, he posted on X likening Iran’s leaders to “rats in a sewer pipe,” insisting the blockade persists until pre-February 27 freedom of navigation returns and noting Iran’s food and gasoline rationing.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett reinforced the message on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” warning of Iran’s “economy on the precipice of extreme calamity” with rampant hyperinflation and emerging hunger pangs.